
Book J§y^c._ 



THE IOWA BAND 



New and Revised Edit 



REV. EPHRAIM ADAMS. D.D. 



BOSTON 

XTbe pilodm press 

CHICAGO 






LINOTYPED AND PRINTED BY J. .1. ARAKEl.V;^ 
295 CONGRESS STREKT. BOSTON. 






DEDICATION TO FIRST EDITION 



To the Rev. Asa Turner, 
Dear Brother : 

It was in November, 1843, that you welcomed to your home, 
your people, and the West, the brethren since known as The 
Iowa Band. At that time, as composing the ordained ministry 
of our denomination in the then Territory of Iowa, there were 
with you six others ; to wit, Julius A. Reed, Reuben Gaylord, 
Charles Burnham, Allen B. Hitchcock, Oliver Emerson, 
and John C. Holbrook. From these, too. came a cordial wel- 
come. 

This was twenty-five years ago ; bringing us, and our mis- 
sion work here, to the Silver Wedding time. It is usual, on 
such occasions, in the presence of friends whose sympathies 
make the joys common to all, to revive the history of the par- 
ties, and reminiscences of the past. 

In this little book, as a Home Missionary offering in honor 
of that noble Society which we all love, there is given, first, a 
brief history of the Band, followed by a few facts and scenes 
from out our common efforts ; with such reflections, in passing, 
as by a review of quarter-century labors, are naturally sug- 
gested : all of which, with due thanks to the Master, you will 
permit, as one of the first Congregational Ministers of Iowa, 
and one whom we all love to call Father Turner, to be to you 
dedicated. 

One of the Band, 

1868 



INTRODUCTION TO FIRST EDITION 

BY 

REV. WILLIAM BARROWS, U.D. 



IF any one ever doubted the utility and success of 
home missions, let him read this volume. If any 
one ever doubted whether his contributions to this 
cause were wisely made and expended, let him study 
this simple narrative of Christian labors in a new ter- 
ritory and state. 

Prior to July 4, 1838, the region covered by this 
work was Wisconsin Territory ; then it became Iowa 
Territory, and, when the Band entered it in 1843, the 
settled portion of it was a belt of land on the west 
bank of the Mississippi, two hundred miles long and 
forty wide, with a population of something over fifty 
thousand. The country was then divided between 
the hardy pioneer, the Indian and the bufTalo. There 
were fifteen Congregational churches. The college, 
the academy, had not gone over the great river ; 
hardly the common school and the Christian Sab- 
bath. It was a noble sight — an act of quiet, beauti- 
ful heroism rarely witnessed — to see these eleven 
men enter in to do their part in building a Christiai) 



vi INTRODUCTION 

state, and dedicating- the latent and develoi)ing en- 
ergies there to Christ and the C'hnreh. 

Jt was hard, unseen, unappreciated lal)or. The 
very word Iowa was yet a strange one to Eastern Hps 
and ears, and was slowly taking its place in our text- 
books and schoolrooms. The men were hidden from 
us in the dim. hazy distance, under frontier shadows. 
Bridle-paths, uglv fords, and monthly mails led to 
their work-fields, hut the Master knew each of their 
cabins, heard ever\- ])rayer and hymn in their creek 
and prairie homes, and owned all their great work. 
What though men did not see their rough founda- 
tions for Church and State ! we see now what is built 
on them. In a sublime unconsciousness of their ob- 
scurity, they lost themselves in their work. So noble 
granite blocks disappear in the deep waters, that 
there may be piers and wharves for queenly ships and 
the merchandise of all climes. 

This volume would not be com])lete without its 
picture of the rude log-cabin church where they were 
ordained, and laid their plans, and whence they 
moved ofY in their different and chosen paths. It 
was a solid, one-story building, originally twenty-four 
feet by twenty. Built in 1837. when there was no 
sawmill in the region, its rough logs were dressed 
down by the axe of the pioneer, split shingles cov- 
ered the roof, and oaken puncheons made the floor 
and the seats — the pews ! Afterward, but before the 
ordination in 1843, an addition of sixteen feet was 



INTRODUCTION vii 

made to one end. This was tlie first Congregational 
meeting-house in Iowa ; and here noble and good 
Father Turner was for so long a time ''the voice of 
one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of 
the Lord !'' The benediction of his face is the fitting 
])relude and preface to this volume. How often his 
deaf old father spoke to us reverently and affection- 
ately of the work "Asa" was doing in tlic "Great 
AA^est !" While, in our college vacations, we were 
mowing for the old gentleman where there were two 
rocks to one grass, "Asa" was planting the "handful 
of corn." Now the fruit thereof shakes like Lebanon, 
and the hundreds of cities of Iowa flourish like the 
grass of their native prairies. 

This same log church, moreover, was the first 
academy building in Iowa. Here Denmark Acad- 
emy had its humble yet noble beginnings in the Feb- 
ruary preceding the ordination. A view^ of its present 
beautiful edifice graces this volume. 

Here, too, Iowa College was first talked over, 
])rayed over, and then projected. It was one of the 
first joys and fruits for the Band, at one of their first 
meetings in Denmark, to consider plans for founding 
the first colleg'e in Iowa. Midway in these sketches, 
the buildings now lift themselves to our view from 
their interior and glorious prairie home. How much 
of heroic history and august prophecy in that pic- 
ture ! 

In days to come, Denmark, Iowa, will be as 2i, 



viii INTRODUCriON 

shrine for Congregational pilgrims ; and, five centuries 
hence, how much would be given for one log from 
that old church ! The place was settled originally by 
inunigrants from Massachusetts and New Hamp- 
shire. Of course, true to New England character, 
and habit, they would at once start a church and a 
school. New Englanders come honestly by such a 
tendency. When John Winthrop, the first governor 
of ^lassachusetts, was seeking a new home in Eng- 
land, long prior to his coming to America, he wrote 
to his son, acting as his agent, "I would be near 
church and some good school." ^^Fay that aspiration, 
so long hereditary, never die out among the descend- 
ants of the Pilgrims and Puritans ! That sentiment 
of Winthrop is the larger and better part of our na- 
tional history, compressed into a sentence. 

Iowa now has her more than two hundred Congre- 
gational churches, the common-school system, highly 
perfected from the Eastern model, with a noble array 
of high schools, academies and colleges. It is a 
record of honor, and eminently fitting it is that these 
labors and fruits of twenty-five years should go into 
written history. This is the Congregational chapter. 
Noble coworkers have material they may v.^ell re- 
joice in for other most worthy chapters. 

It should be here said that these sketches have 
been modestly held back and reluctantly given by 
men who preferred rather to do work than tell of it. 
But we remember how Iowa looked before the Band 



INTRODUCTION ix 

saw it, — when Keokuk was a village of twelve log 
and two frame houses; when Burlington showed the 
green stumps in its main streets ; when Davenport 
was barely the superior rival of Rockingham ; and 
buffalo, deer and Indians divided among themselves 
the waters of the Des Moines, Cedar and Wapsipini- 
con. We have w^atched the magic change and 
studied it in frequent revisits, and it seems but due to 
God to tell how he has made the wilderness a fruitful 
field. 

A Christian state has been founded. Let skeptics 
study the w^ork, who think we have no longer need 
for the Christian religion. The Church of Christ has 
lengthened her cords and strengthened her stakes. 
Let the supporters of home missions behold, and 
thank God, and so draw dividends on their charity 
investments and take new stock in new states be- 
yond. The Congregational Church has gone into a 
new territory, and become energetic, thrifty and mul- 
titudinous. Let those make note of it who think 
Congregationalism will not work well out of New 
England, is not adapted to a new country and mixed 
communities. As if sacred Republicanism cannot go 
hand in hand across the continent with secular Re- 
publicanism, and men manage their own affairs, by 
popular suffrage in a church, as well as in a town, 
city or state ! Congregational funds have had de- 
nominational investment in Iowa. Let results so 
^minentlv satisfactorv confirm our churches in the 



.X INTRODUCriOX 

wisdom uf such invcstnionis. Aiu)llicr sicj) ol divine 
Providence is taken westward in fulfilling;- the proph- 
ec\-. "lie shall have dominion from sea to sea." from 
the Atlantic to the Pacific. Another Christian state 
is added to the frontier, lookini^ towards the ^reat 
sea. The base-line of the army of occupation for 
Christ is moved so much farther towards the prophe- 
sied boundaiN. What new Hands will now i^o out 
to the fn^nl, and picket the advancing- army? Dy 
and by they will meet those cominj^" u]) the Pacific 
slope; then will the watchmen see eye to eye. and re- 
joice toofether: then will p:lory dwell in the land. 
Rcaiiiiig. M.iss.. May, iS/O. 



THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE SECOND 
EDITION 



It is with no little hesitation that it is presented. It has 
seemed in its preparation somewhat like repeating a story once 
told, or telling it where there is but little interest to hear. And 
yet the venture is made. Courage for it has come partly be- 
cause of pleasing evidence that the first edition was not with- 
out its use, partly that inquiries for what has long since been 
out of print are still made, but mainly from the judgment of 
friends that a second edition would find circulation and do 
good. As will be seen, it is but a reprint of the first, with 
few exceptions. The names of persons and places referred to 
in the first by initials and blanks are here given, the reason for 
withholding them no longer existing. The notes in passing, a 
few chapters added to bring matters down to the present time, 
and a brief appendix may add interest to, while enlarging the 
view of events referred to. As to the object in view, it is still 
the same, to pay a tribute to Home Missions. If it will serve 
to imbed more deeply the noble work of Home Missions in the 
hearts of the churches, the hopes of the author will be re- 
alized. 

EPHRAIM ADAAIS. 



INTKODUCTION TO IHB SECOND HUH10N 

IJY 

REV. JAMES L. HILL, D.D. 



The Iowa l>and has suppHed for the country the ro- 
mance of home missions, llie frecpiency of references 
to it in Associations and National Councils and in the 
religious })ai)ers justifies this oi)ini()n. it is a tale of 
border life. Men are so made that ihey reverence a 
bold venture when accompanied by a sense of duty. 
'Ilie fine stories of the world are made up of heroisms. 
What contagious warmth of feeling used tO' pervade 
the meeting of the General Association of Iowa at the 
nujment when these members of the Iowa I'and, 
I'^atlurs in Israel, dcught} j)i()neers, stood together 
about the pul])it and sang, "iMy days are gliding swift- 
ly ])y" ! 

These men were superlatively fortunate in the choice 
they made of location. It is probably true that Iowa, 
lying between her great rivers, is the most productive 
solid area of ground anywhere to be found. The 
name means 77//.v-/.v-///('-/. <///(/. "It is tlu^ most m:ig- 
niheent (lvvelling-])lace ])repar(.'(l by Cod for man's 
abode/' says l)eToc(|ueviIle in speaking of this gar- 
den, of which Iowa is perhaps the choicest portion, 
xiii 



xiv INTRODUCTION 

iV'oplc wlio have seen the stale only during- the last 
I went \ years can scarcely imagine the indescribable 
Leant v of the prairies before they were settled. It was 
the state of the wild rose. The grass grew thick and 
strong and high. Myriads of prairie flowers dotted 
the unl)roken exi)anse. Some came early and others 
remained uiuil the frosts killed the most beautiful of 
all, the aster and the goldenrod. 

More fortunate still, these men believed in the 
power of "together." They remind one of the Pil- 
_L;rims at rivmouth in their cooperative work. "When 
bad men combine." <;iid r.urke. "good men must asso- 
ciate." 

The emphasis is ik-i only ui)on the word hnva, l)Ut 
fully as much upon the designation IniiiiL They were 
allied in their work. The\- were "association men." 
This disposition to be united in their labor and to co- 
operate fully with .)thers on the tield. made them more 
effective in fostering the churches and at length in the 
joint work of founding a college. School instructors, 
a great portion of whom were ladies, multiplied until 
Iowa employed more teachers than any state in the 
Union, with the single exception of New York and 
that on account of her great city. The highest inci- 
dental service and an enduring imprint on the terri- 
tory designed to become so distinguished, sprang 
from the fact that they were educated men. They had 
the classical spirit and came forth from college halls. 
During their day the tide turned irresistibly toward 



INTRODUCTION xv 

education. The result is C(jni])resse(l in tlie statement 
of "A church on every hiUtop and a schoolhouse in 
eveiy valley." Iowa came to have the least illiteracy 
of any state in the Union. She has employed more 
teachers than states that have two or three times her 
population. She was contrasted even with ]\Iassachu- 
setts by Gov. Benjamin F. Butler, showing that Iowa 
had, in the comparison, less illiteracy. Iowa has more 
banks than any state in the Union. In the dozen 
North Central States Iowa's estimated wealth exceeds 
all except Illinois and Ohio, and that on account of 
their great cities. The statistician Mulhall was forced 
to exclaim, "This is a prodigious growth of wealth, aird 
without a parallel in the history of the human race." 
How strange have seemed the statements which she 
has published when she has been without a debt ! 

Her fine, great soldiers' monument near the capitol 
shows her pride in the patriotism and devotion of her 
sons. She furnished more than her quota of soldiers 
in the Civil War, and when one man enlisting for three 
years was made the equivalent of three men enlisting 
for one year, the draft was abrogated. Now there is 
no such a thing as an accident ; there is a cause for 
everything, if we can find it. From some source this 
prairie state on the sunset side of the Mississippi re- 
ceived just the right initiative at just the right junc- 
ture. The times served the men, and the men met 
their opportunity. Such a field can never be again 
presented between these seas. What a bundle of his- 



xvi IXTROnUCTION 

tory this Band binds up ! Tlie religious pioneers in 
Iowa were remarkable men. They were raised up by 
Providenee for a definite and important and innnortal 
purpose. They were decided factors in its achieve- 
ment. 'Tt is not too nuich to say," writes Dr. Dun- 
ning, in 1894, "that their combined influence has given 
character not only to the denomination in the state but; 
to the state itself." Dr. Robbins acted as president of 
a board of college trustees for seventeen years. Dr. 
Lane, a good preacher, was by j)reeminent gifts also a 
teacher, and did not neglect his talent. The two sur- 
vivors, Drs. Adams and Salter, "venerable men who 
have come down to us from a former generation," are 
both writers of history. The men of the Band made 
the impression of gentlemen. They were cultivated 
and mild and genial. They had nothing, not one of 
them, of that loudness which is sometimes associated 
with life on a western frontier. They were quiet in 
sj)cech and demeanor. The\' were well born. They 
came out of the choicest families in the East. They 
shut behind them all doors opening either toward ease 
or a competency when they uncomplainingly began 
their work on a salary of $400 a year. 

In counting over the Iowa Band be careful, reader, 
not to omit to notice the part taken in their noble, 
self-denying work by the pioneer prairie women who, 
having been delicately reared and carefully educated 
in the East, accompanied their husbands of the Band 
to their outposts. Their names are all written in a 



INTRODUCTION xvii 

book of renienibrancc, which is the Book of Life. 
When thinking of home missions one must think, too, 
of the missionaries of the home. In the crude, early 
days these homes were representatives of all the 
amenities of life. In the family, no matter how frugal 
the meal, all waited until all were ready to approach 
the table. The Band stood for the home idea. Work- 
ing with others, they sought by direct influence to in- 
duce the governor of the state to introduce into the 
far West the New England observance of Thanksgiv- 
ing Day which became, in time, a Home Festival. 
Here is life on the frontier, but it never lost its dignity 
and refinement and delicacy. Let this be said to the 
praise of the moral priestesses as well as to the credit 
of college men. These are the forces that cast up a 
highway for our God through the wilderness. In the 
light of results we see their life only now on its sunny 
side, but the small economies of the home doubtless 
in earliest days sometimes suggested ''the shady side." 
As the number of these men and women diminishes, 
our honor of them is carried up into veneration. The 
two men that are left are looking at life's work in the 
light of the setting sun. And have they not high 
honor? It is they who lose their life that find it. "It 
is probable that no equal number of young ministers, 
leaving a theological seminary together, ever founded 
so many churches in five or ten years after their 
graduation as these men" whose aggregated years of 
service have amounted now to over half a thousand. 



X-viii INTRODUCTION 

Thc\- accomplished more than thoy could ha\'c done 
liad thicy remained in the l^asl or had they heen more 
widely scattered. They did more than two or three 
times as many could now do in that or in any other 
state of the West. Such toils, sacrifices and heroisms 
as are here suggested have undoubtedly given to this 
noticeably well governed commonwealth her peculiar 
state pride which is equalled by but one, at the utmost 
by but two. other component ])arts of our Union. 

If it is meet to lay the laurel upon the veteran's 
grave, should that of the old pioneer minister be for- 
gotten? Was he not a patriot too? The statutes in 
iowa i)r()\i(le thai our c<»untr\'s tlag shall float over 
her sch(3oIhouses and that her children shall be tauglit 
to sing a state song set to a popular tune whicli is 
calculated to kindle their state patriotism. 

"From yonder Mis.^is.sippi's .stream 
To where Missouri's waters gleam. 
O fair it is as poet's dream, — 
Iowa, in Iowa. 

"Go read the story of thy past. 
Iowa, O Iowa, 

What glorious deeds, what fame thou hast. 
Iowa, O Iowa. 

"So long as time's great cycle runs. 
Or nations weep their fallen ones, 
Thou 'It not forget thy patriot sons. 
Iowa, O Iowa." 

Salem, Mass. 



CONTENTS 

Pac;k 

Dedication to First Edition iii 

Introduction to First Edition v 

The Author's Preface to the Second Edition xi 

Introduction to the Second Edition .... xiii 

CHAPTER I 
GhRM -Thought 3 

CHAPTER II 
A Suggestion 6 

CHAPTER III 
The Prayer-Meeting lO 

CHAPTER IV 
The Band Formed and Plans Matured .... 13 

CHAPTER V 
The Journey 18 

CHAPTER VI 
Ordination and Dispersion 27 

CHAPTER VII 
Getting to Work and Coalescing 3- 

CHAPTER VIII 

A Diary 39 

• CHAPTER IX 

Then and Now ^" 

CHAPTER X 
The Workers "^ 



XX CONTENTS 

CHAPTER XI 

Results 74 

CHAPTER XH 
Thf. Iowa Association 85 

CHAPTER XIII 
The Iowa AssiKiATiox. What is it Xow ? ... 97 

CHAPTER XI\' 
Iowa C(->LLEt;E 103 

CHAPTER W 
CoLLEcJE History Continled. Its Ciui.N.NELL Pekiud 115 

CHAPTER XN'I 
A Rake Chai-tek. and Short 126 

CHAPTER X\'1I 

Fragments U3 

CHAPTER \V\]\ 
Loss and Gain 166 

C1E\PT]-:K XIX 
In Memokiam 178 

CHAPTER XX 
In Memokiam. Continied ekom 1870 to 1902 . . 190 

CHAPTER XXI 

Outlook and Conclusion 204 

' CHAPTER XXII 

Eventide 213 

Appendixes 225 

Map of Iowa 234 

Addenda 235 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



Page 
Members of the Iowa Band . . . Frontispiece 

Church of Ordination and Denmark Academy, 1843 . 27 

Edwards Congregational Chiifch, Daveriport . . . 74 . 

First Church, Decorah, 1895 yd 

Plymouth Congregational Church, Des ]\Ioines ... 80 

Presidents of Iowa College : 

George Frederick Magoun, George A. Gates . 103 

Iowa College Pioneer Helpers : 

Preserved Wood Carter, Prof. Erastus Rip- 
ley, Prof. Leonard Fletcher Parker, Josiah 
Bushnell Grinnell 108 

Beginnings of Iowa College 112 

Iowa College Buildings 115 

Congregational Church, Grinnell 120 

Pioneers before the Band : 

Julius A. Reed, A. B. Hitchcock, John C. 
Holbrook, Reuben Gaylord. Father Asa 
Turner, Oliver Emerson 190 

Dr. and Mrs. Ephraim Adams 213 



THE IOWA BAND 



CHAPTER I 

GERM-THOUGHT 

IT was a beautiful evening in the summer of 1S42, 
when the students of Andover Seminary as- 
sembled in the chapel, to be led as usual in their 
evening devotions by one of the venerable professors 
of those days. Among them sat one, pale and 
emaciated by continued illness, — one of whom friends 
])egan to whisper, "Unless relieved soon, we fear he 
will never be well, even if he lives." They might, 
perhaps, have spared a portion of their anxiety, had 
they known better the nature of his disease, it being 
what may be called the student's enemy, dyspepsia, 
and that not of a chronic form. 

Our friend was in the middle year ; a year when 
theological subjects, the great doctrines of salvation, 
are studied ; a year that has more influence, proba1)ly, 
in shaping the nu'nister. than any other of his semi- 
nary course ; a year in whicji, if ever, the student's 



^ Tim low. I Jiixn 

heart kindles with desire to preach the i^reat truths of 
the Bible to liis fellow men. He had entered the 
chapel that evening under the combined inlluence of 
his studies and his disease. He longed for the time 
when he should be a preacher ; but thei>, could he be 
one? Even the duties of the seminary were a burden 
almost too hea\\' to be borne. Could he. then, go 
forth to write two sermons a week, attend funerals, 
weddings, jirepare lectures, perform pasti^ral labor, 
and all the et cetera of a parish minister's life? Im- 
possible ! Sedentary habits had already induced a 
disease, which, if unchecked, would cri]iple his en- 
ergies, while shortening his da\s. A minister's life 
was likely to aggravate rather than check it. AMiat 
shi^uld he doi^ ^fust he a1)and(Tn his long-cherished 
plan, or should he press on and give himself an early 
sacrifice to it? 

Just then there came to liis mind the thought that 
there was a field where the necessary labors of a min- 
ister would probably counteract, rather than foster, 
his disease : and that field the West, ^^'ith this came 
a rush of other thoughts, of things that he had heard 
and read about the \\"est. Tt would be self-denial to 
go; but then, in self-denial there would come 
strength of character, with the gain of a more con- 
scious consecration to God. Tlien there w^as the 
probable influence of his going upon fellow students, 
friends. Christians and the Church, for to go West 
then wa? truly a missionary work. For the moment 



GERM-THOUGHT 5 

he seemed to be there, preaching to the destitute and 
laying the foundations of society. Then came the 
thought, that, possibly, he might live, labor and die 
with the fruits of his toils about him, — himself en- 
shrined in the hearts of a beloved people, sought out 
and adopted by him in his youth. 

These thoughts, with others, passed before him 
with the swiftness of a vision. They had for a time 
the efYects of a vision. All things else were shut out. 
The chapter, the hymn, the singing, were all unheard. 
In the general movement he rose for prayer, but not 
to join in the petitions offered. The spell was upon 
him, and he seemed to stand alone as before God, — 
his feelings, his petitions, all embodied in one senti- 
ment, one feeling, — a position of soul in which his 
one desire was, "Lord, prepare me for whatever field 
thou hast before me. Prepare me for it, and make 
me willing to enter it.'' 

He went out that evening not as he came in. 
Henceforth the prayer was, ''May I be found in the 
right place, doing the right work !" Here was the 
germ, the unfoldings of which, unto the fruit thereof, 
we are to trace. 



CHAPTER II 

A SUGGESTIO.y 

WIK) that has passed a seminar}- life has for- 
g'otleii the seminary tramp, whieh means a 
long- walk of half a (la\- or so, generally taken of 
a Saturday afternoon, when students, in little com- 
])anics, are wont to extend their rambles far away 
from sight of seminary walls and sound of seminary 
bell? It was in tlie si)ring of 1S43 that our dyspeptic 
friend, Daniel Lane, and two of his elassmates w^ere 
on such an excursion amid the hills and bracing air 
of the West Parish. 

For two and a half years these classmates had been 
associated in sacred studies ; and they were class- 
mates indeed. Circumstances had conspired to bind 
them together with ties of more than usual strength. 
The time of their preparation for the great w^ork in 
view was rapidl\' drawing to a close. And now^ as 
was natural, the conversation turned upon the prob- 
able field of their labor. The New England parish, 
the foreign field, the home field, especially at the Far 
West, — each, in turn, was discussed. The feeling 
seemed rather to incline to the latter. The more they 
talked of it, the more they felt. And now Horace 
Hutchinson suggested : — 
6 



A SUGGESTION 7 

"If we and some others of our classmates could 
(jnly go out together, and take possession of some 
lield where we could have the ground and work to- 
gether, what a grand thing it would be!" "So it 
would," was the reply. Then the advantages, the 
difficulties and the probable influence of such a 
movement, were the theme; until, ere they were 
aware of it, their feet were again climbing the old 
familiar hill. The declining sun hung low, and the 
bell, faithful to its duties, was hastening them to 
prayers. "We will think of this," said they. Thus 
the germ, ripening to a suggestion, had struck root 
in other minds, the growth of wdiich we are still to 
follow. 

But right here it should be told how God, as after- 
wards discovered, was leading other minds also. In 
one case, it was on this wise : — Notice had been given, 
about this time, that an elder of a church in Cincin- 
nati would meet the students, to address them on the 
claims of the West. At the hour appointed, there 
were assembled both students and professors, but the 
elder came not. Yet a Western meeting was held. 

Venerable Dr. Woods read a letter from a good 
deacon of a little church away out on the frontier, 
calling for young men to break to the people the 
bread of life." The saintly Bela B. Edwards, who had 
just traveled West, and whose mind was quick to 
take in its destined progress, expressed his belief in 

1 Deacon Houston, of Denmark, Iowa. 



8 THE IOWA BA\n 

llio asscrtiiHi, bold, startling-, uncrcditcd at the tinu\ 
that "whucvor \ve)uld gD W'ost. in ten \cars would 
find himself better off than it he had stayed in New 
England, and. better tlian all. would have the satis- 
faction of laboriui;- where he was nu^re needed." 
Prof. Emerson, in his offhand wa\ . declared t'nat he 
had no sort of doubt that it was the dut\- of more 
than two-thirds of the students to seek fields of labor 
outside (»f New liUL^land. It was a stirring' meetinj^;'. 
Many were ij;lad the elder did not come. 

The meeting- was closed, and the students dis- 
l)ersed. To most, to all, perhaps, save one, Harvey 
.\dams, it came and went like many another. There 
was before him a sleepless night. In his mind was at 
work another germ thought. "Out of Xew England, 
where he was UK^re needed." And if (3Ut of New 
England, where more needed, why not where most 
needed ? Strange was the power of that question as 
it took possession of him for that night and the next 
day, leading to much thought and prayer! Some- 
times there can be no rest till things are settled, and 
settled in the way that seems right. So it w^as in this 
case, and our friend came manfully to the conclusion, 
'T am for the \\>st. where needed, and where most 
needed." 

Then there was another. Edwin B. Turner, a gradu- 
ate of a Western college, w^hose friends were in the 
West. It was known to be settled in his mind, from 
the first, that he would go A\"est somewhere. Just 



A SUGGESTION 9 

how, by his presence and intercourse, germ-thoughts 
were started or fostered can never be known. Sel- 
dom can it be told in any movement, in which are the 
united efforts of human wills, just what the first in- 
fluences were, or how they combined to produce the 
result. Here, preeminently, God works among men 
to will and to do. The movement here recorded we 
acknowledge as of him. Other germs of it doubtless 
there were in other minds, but each can give only 
what to him is know^n. This only can the writer do ; 
and so we will follow on. 



cHAr'n-R III 

run PRAYliR-MliliTIXG 

H( )\\' uppermost in our minds arc thoup:hts, 
l)lans. projects, wliicli \\c li'>l<l in conmion with 
others! How. l)v a new tie. are we hound to them, 
and tliev to u> I And liow natural now. if C'hristians 
all, anil the i)lan he one of iuijxirt. to carry it lo ( lod 
in united prayer! ( )ur three friends of the former 
chapter, among whom the question of concerted ac 
tion had heen started, were more closely allied than 
ever as they together walked and talked of the West- 
ern scheme. T.y nnitual consent, each, in a (|uiet way. 
suogested it to others. Whenever it took with es- 
pecial favor, as being by ( lod's preparing of course it 
would, there was one added to their number. 

Soon the enterprise began to wear an important 
aspect, calling for the guidance of heavenly wisdom. 
So a praver-meeting was proposed. All assented. 
But where should it be held? Xot in a public room, 
for the movement was as yet kept secret. If, in the 
end. anything should come of it. there would be time 
enough yet. it was thought, to make it known; if not, 
it was better that it should always be a secret. Nor, 
again, could they meet in a private room, for, as yet. 



THE PRAYER-MEETISG n 

no two of those interested happened to he rcjonimates, 
in whose room they could privately assemble. 
Where, then, should they meet? One of their num- 
ber, Daniel Lane, was assistant librarian ; and the li- 
brary was proposed. ''Agreed, " said they ; and Tues- 
day evening, in the Seminary library, w^as fixed upon 
for the meeting. "But it will be dark," said one; "for 
the rules forbid lights in the library." "No matter." 
said another; *Sve can pray in the dark." So on 
^^icsday nights, in one corner of the library, they 
used to pray, to seek of God wdiither to go, where to 
labor. In one corner of the Seminary library ! And 
what fitter place could have been chosen in which to 
go to the mercy-seat with such an errand, than this, 
where heralds of the cross in every clime once had 
trod ; where were about them the works of the pious 
dead of every age ; wdiere. as the moonbeams played 
upon the portraits of men once eminent in the 
Church, the great cloud of witnesses seemed to com- 
pass them about? 

There they prayed. Those first entering w^ould 
find their way to the appointed corner, and begin. 
Others, coming in, would join them in turn. Occa- 
sionally, in the darkness, some new^ step w^ould be 
heard ; but wdiose it was would be unknowai to most, 
till a new voice would be heard in prayer. First the 
prayers, then the conference, consultations as to mo- 
tives, qualifications, encouragements and discour- 
agements of the Western work, mainlv what field, if 



12 Tin: /()//'./ />./.\7) 

iiiiw should l^c (.iccupicd. Sliuukl it be ( )hi(). Miclii- 
L;an? These, indeed, were west, but not reall\- West • 
er!i. Ilhnois. Wisconsin? These were farther west, 
indeed, but then partially, perhaps comparatively 
well, supplied. 

"Well. then. Missoiu-i."' says one. 

"lUu Missuuri i> a sla\e state." 

■"Xo matter: they nec(l the _i^dS]>el there it it is." 

"^'es; but, it there are places outside of slavery iusi 
as need\. win rv< tt ^n where we can labor to the best 
advantai^e?" 

"Well. Iowa. then. ^w hat sa\- \<iu to the new Ter- 
ritory of b )wa.''" 

Xot nmch could be said, for but little was known — 
onlv this: it was an open field, and of course there 
was need. 

So then.' the\- i)ra\ed and considted in that north- 
west corner of the library. Had it anythinfj^ to do 
with the i^rear Northwest soon to be? In God\s nur- 
ture were the L;erms bciui^- dev(.loi)ed, united, di- 
rected, whose fruita.^e was to be borne in re.q:ions yet 
to be peopled. Rut we will not anticipate save in 
this: that Tuesday niq-ht ])rayer-meetin,o- on Andover 
Hill. transi)lanted. as it was soon to be. to the plains 
of Iowa. — may it lonp: live! ^fay it never cease to be 
held in sacred observance bv the Congregational 
ininistrv of this fair State!" 



CHAPTER IV 
THE BAXD FORMED AND PLANS MATURED 

AS yet, nothing was decided. All eyes, indeed, af- 
ter reflection and prayer, were unanimously 
turned to the new Territory of Iowa as the field to be 
occupied if they should go. Some of the more ardent 
had opened a correspondence with the secretaries of 
the American Home Missionary Society; also with 
the Rev. Asa Turner, agent of that society and a resi- 
dent pastor of the Territory. But no one was as yet 
committed to the enterprise. It was not certain yet 
tliat any one could go, and tlie weeks were flying 
swiftly. It was time, surely, for action, and thus it 
came : 

'T am going to settle this question," said Daniel 
Lane, "so far as I am concerned. We have been 
thinking about it long enough to conclude one way 
or another." 

That day he retired tO' his room for fasting and 
l)rayer. At evening, as he came out at the setting of 
the sun to walk with a friend, he was ready to say, 
"Well, I am going to Iowa : whether any one else 
goes or not, I am going." 

''And T think T will go with you," was the reply. 



14 THE IOWA n.ixn 

So a nucleus was fornicd. and around it ^atliorod 
others one l\v one. — some at once decidinq-. others 
after more thouj^ht. or seasons of prixate fastin<;- and 
prayer, till soon the number stood, as decided to go, 
at twelve. Their names were as follows: — 

l)aniel Lane, llarxey Adams, Rrastus Ripley, 
llnrace llutcliinson. Alden !'.. I\()l)l)ins. \\'ilHam 
Saht'r. I^dwin 1'. Turner. r>enjamin A. S])auldin|Li^. 
W'ilham Tlanuuond. janus 1. llill. l\henezer Alden, 
Jr.. Kpln-aim .\dams. Tliis was the Iowa Hand. 
Though seeking lalxT in a wild country these pio- 
neers were not uneducated men. l)Ut were thorough- 
bred collegians, as tlie following data will show. 
Their college spirit led to the establishment of a high 
grade institution in their new field. 

Erastus Ripley was of I^nion College, New York; 
William Salter came from Xew York University; 
Horace Hutchinson, Ebenezer Alden and Alden Bur- 
rill Robbins went through Amherst ; Daniel Lane and 
James Jeremiah Hill were of Bowdoin ; Benjamin 
Adams Spaulding graduated from Harvard ; ET)hraim 
Adams from Dartmouth and Edwin Bela Turner 
from Illinois College. 

There was no longer need of secrecy. Open steps 
could be taken to mature plans. The Mission Rooms 
were filled with gladness at the prospect of such a re- 
enforcement for the liome missionary work. The 
senior secretary, the Rev. ^Milton Badger, D.D., came 
from Xew York to hold a personal interview with the 



THE BAND FORMED 15 

liand ; coniniissicjiis were prcjiiiiscd fur iIrmt clujscn 
field, and all things favored the enterprise. But the 
far-off brethren then laboring in the proposed field 
rejoiced with trembling. Oft had they looked for 
promised help, but looked in vain. Those who had 
started with commissions in hand for the distant Ter- 
ritory had all lodged by the way hitherto; none had 
reached them; why should these? 

"It's no use," said ReV. Asa Turner of Denmark, 
the Western pastor who had been written to upon the 
subject, and who had set himself to the formidable 
task of replying to the long list of queries sent him 
about the climate, the ague, the fever, the food, 
clothing, etc. — "it 's no use to answer any more 
of your questions ; for I never expect to see one 
of you west of the Mississippi River as long as 
I live." 

He was assured, in reply, of earnestness in the mat- 
ter, but still he was incredulous. Again he was told, 
that, God willing, he would surely be visited by a 
dozen or so, and compelled to believe. 

"Well, then," said he, "come on; come all of you 
directly to my house ; come here to us, and we then 
can help you to your respective fields of labor." This 
seemed reasonable ; so Denmark, Lee County, Iowa, 
became a locality in the mind of each, as yet to 
be seen,. It seemed best also, unless, in individual 
cases, there should be special reasons to the con- 
trarv, that the ordination of the voung men should 



l6 77//:" joij-.i njxi) 

lake place on llic t'lcld wlicrc I heir lit'o-work was 
to be. 

Such a home missionary mo\emenl in one class 
was ihoni^in worthx- i^i some public recognition. 
Accordin^h . a meeting" was held on Sahhalh even- 
ini;-. Sept. 3. 1S43. in the Soiuh Church at Andover. 
A sermnn was i)reached 1)\ the Rew Leonard lia- 
con. 1). 1).. and an a]>pro])riate address made to 
llu- r.and 1)\- I )r. r.ad^er dt" the Home Missi(jnary 
Society. 

"\'oti i^o," said he. "where yon will tuid a soil of 
sin-i)assinLi- richness, all co\ered with beautiful tlow- 
ers. r.nt remember that the soil is yet in its natural 
state, and must be all turned up. Those Howers. 
though boautifid to the eye. are but flowers of weeds, 
wild and useless. They must be rooted out, and bel- 
ter seed cast in their place." 

This meeting- was larj^^e ; and the exercises 
throuo;hout were appro])riatc, interesting^ and sol- 
enm. It was now near the close of the term. The 
Anniversary Day soon came, and was gone. The 
time had been imi)rove(l. Already had the boxes 
been made, and the books packed, soon to be 
shipped, labelled "Rurlinic^ton, Iowa, z'ia Xew Or- 
leans." 

A few weeks now with home friends, after wliich 
must be fixed the time and place of departure. Bos- 
ton will not do as a starting-point, as some reside 
west of this, and so on the way. Some place must 



THE BAND FORM ED 17 

be chosen west of all. So each has it in his memoran- 
dum, "Albany, New York, at the Delavan House,^ 
on Tuesday, 3d of October, the next morning to take 
the cars westward." 

Where through broad lands of green and gold 

The Western rivers roll their waves, 
Before another year is told, 

We find our homes ; perhaps, our graves.* 

/. H. Bancroft. 

3 Chosen because a temperance hotel. 

* From hymn written for the class of 1S43, and sung at their graduation. 



ClIAVrER \' 
THE JOl'RM-y 

Ox Wcdiu'sday. ( )cl. 4. 1S43. tlic jinirnoy west- 
ward l)o,Lian. Most ol I Ik- liand were at tlie 
ai)i)()inled i)lace. l)iit not all. ( hie. Mr. l^>astus Ripley, 
had been invited to spend another year at the seminary 
as resident lieentiate. Another, Mr. j. J. Hill, since 
the ])artin^- at Andover. had lost a father by death, 
and would be detained until sprini^". A third. Mr. W. 
1-.. llanunond, did not come. thr. )U,^h fear of a West- 
ern climate, and Mr. 1 lorace 1 lutcliinson was detained 
a (lav bv the death of a friend. l)ut would probably 
overtake the company by night travel. And yet their 
number was nearly complete by the appearance of 
two as twain. Mr. Daniel Lane and Mr. A. B. Rob- 
bins, with characteristic foresight, had taken to them- 
selves wives in view of losses from our original num- 
ber that might possibly occur. 

We will ncjt follow the journey in detail. A few 
points only will be noticed in passing, such as, after 
the lapse of years, shine out brightest on memory's 
page. Twenty-five years ago, a journey from the 
x-\tlantic to the Mississippi was long and tedious. A 
week then would scarcelv suf^ce for what can now 



THE JOURNEY I9 

be acconiplislied in a day. As practically performed 
by the Band, it was divided into three parts — the 
railroad, the lakes, and the prairies. The first was 
soon over, and soon forgotten, bringing them on 
their way to Buffalo, then the terminus of travel west- 
ward by cars. Here their reception and stay for a 
while were most pleasant. There was then living in 
that city, as pastor of one of the churches, that most 
fervent and earnest Christian man, Dr. Asa T. Hop- 
kins. He died Nov. 28, 1847. Though a stranger to 
all, he gave them a brother's welcome, and com- 
mended them to the hospitalities of his people. What 
kind Christian families they found ! Surely this can- 
not be the West, thought they ; not far enough yet for 
missionary ground. 

On Saturday they took a trip to Niagara, to gaze 
upon the Falls, that wondrous work of God, return- 
ing at night to Buffalo to spend the Sabbath with 
their kind friends. It was a bright, pleasant day, and 
their hearts were joyous within them. 

The following clipping from a Buffalo paper will 
reveal how the day was spent : 

Rev. Messrs. Ephraim Adams, of New Ipswich, N. 
H., Harvey Adams, Franklin City, Ct., Ebenezer Al- 
den, Randolph, Mass., Horace Hutchinson, Sutton. 
Mass., Daniel Lane, Freepbrt, Me., Alden B. Rob- 
bins, Salem, Mass., William Salter, New York City, 
N. Y., Benjamin A. Spaulding, Bedford, Mass., and 
Edwin B. Turner, Monticello, 111., met in this city, 



:<) run low.i H.ixn 

oil Satiinlax- last. 1)\ a-Tccnu-nt. on tlu'ir \\a\- lo ilu- 
Territory ol luwa. and remained oxer Sal)l):itli. Ilu 
most of thoni attended divine service at the I-irst 
Presbyterian Church, where, opportuneh . thev were 
permitted to partake of the communion,' before their 
departure for the West. In the evenini^ of that day, 
by appomtment. these gentlemen attended a general 
meetino-. in the JMrst Church, at which Messrs. Sal- 
ter. Robbins. E. Adams. Sutton and Lane, spoke to 
a large audience, in the most interesting manner, in 
regard to the enterj)rise upon which thev have en- 
tered. It appears that some time in l\d)ruary last, 
two or three young men in Andover Theological 
Seminary, in casting about for the field of their fu- 
ture labors as clergymen, hit upon a plan of gc^ng to 
Towa, and laboring there. They communicated this 
plan to others, who joined them; and finally to the 
Home Missionary Society, where it was favorably 
received, and these young men with two others. Rev. 
Messrs. James J. Hill, of Rhii)psburg. Me., and Wm. 
B. Hammond, of Fair Haven. Mass.. (who are de- 
tamed by sickness) eleven in all, made arrangements 
with that society to go to Iowa, and devote them- 
selves as missionaries to that voung and rapidly 
growing territory. We are glad to see Protestant 
New England alive to the necessity of scattering re- 
ligious and scientific light and knowledge in the val- 
ley of the Mississippi. For, in the forcible language 
of Professor Post, of Jacksonville, (111.) wdio also at- 
tended and addressed the meeting above named, *'A 
plea for the \\>st is a plea for the East. If the West 
sins, the East will sin with her. If the W^est falls, she 
will drag down the East with her. The chain of great 
lakes on the north, and the Mississippi and her arms 
on the west, whose navigable waters would, in a 



THE JOURNEY 2 1 

strai.q-lil line, surround llie ohjhc. l)in(l the East and 
the West so indissolubly to^^ether, that the fate of 
the one must be the fate of the other." 

These missionaries, together with Professor Post, 
and four other missionaries, bound to Alichigan and 
Wisconsin, who providentially met the Iowa Band 
here, left last evening in the Missouri for their several 
destinations. May they have a safe and pleasant pas- 
sage, and be successful in their undertaking ! We 
cannot refrain from saying that we have seldom seen 
so many men banded together in an enterprise, who 
seemed to possess such sterling good sense, and 
humble, quiet characters, coupled with firmness and 
decision, as did these young men. 

On Monday morning all felt as though they had 
enjoyed the acquaintance of wxeks, and w^ere almost 
sad at parting. But the parting came. In the even- 
ing of that day, Oct. 9, they went on board the 
steamer "Missouri," bound for Chicago. The good 
pastor, and other Christian friends, accompanijd 
them on board to bid them Godspeed, and say adieu. 
A hymn w^as sung, and a prayer ofifered. Beautiful 
in the bloom of youth, and with sweetest voice in that 
evening's song, was the sister of the pastor's wife, 
who stood among them there ; but the sad news came 
a few months afterwards, that the rose was fading 
upon her cheek, and soon again that she w^as dead. 
By her side stood Miss Jane Brush, who became the 
wife of Edwin B. Turner, a little older irf years, but 
her companion in the family, bidding with others 



2 2 THE IOWA BAND 

a last farewell. \ct dcstiiu'd of (iixl souii to be a 
sl'ai'cr in ilu' fortunes of those to wlioiu she was say- 
ins;- adieu. The last bell rinses, and the planks are 
ready to be drawn in. Already is the hoarse breath 
of the steamer lieard as her whole frame quivers at 
the life-beats of her eng^ine, and she swinj^s slowly 
round from the pier, and takes her eourse. 

"Adieu, adieu I" and so is the second portion of the 
journe\ beiiun. The wide, wide Lakes were entered, 
— all strange, all new . and yet soon how dull ! It was, 
indeed, with some interest that they touched at Erie, 
Cleveland and Detroit. The morning at Mackinaw 
was bright and calm, and the hour pleasant, in which 
they were permitted, in the bracing air, to scale the 
heights on shore, or watch the trout in the clear wa- 
ters of the u])i)er lakes. lUit. on the whole, head 
winds and a rough sea without, and seasickness and 
monotony on board, made it anything but a pleasant 
l)assage. 

Late on Saturday night, in stormy weather, they 
had only reached Milwaukee. There most of them 
left the boat to tarry for the Sabbath. A few, either 
too sick to leave their berths, or for some other 
special reason, remained on board to arrive at Chica- 
go in the morning. Those tarrying for the Sabbath 
had a quiet, pleasant day. and on ]^Ionday found a 
boat to take them on their way to join those who had 
gone before them. And so the Lakes were passed.' 

^ Note 2. 



THE JOURNEY 23 

One more experience now, — the prairies, the great 
wide prairies of Illinois, — and the journey will be 
complete. Almost two weeks had already been con- 
sumed. Another would bring the end. 

It was in the fall of the year, just after harvest- 
time, and from all parts of Illinois, even farther west 
than the interior of the state, farmers were coming to 
find a market for their wheat in the then great city 
of Chicago, of eight thousand people. On their re- 
turn home, these farmers were glad to find some 
traveler, some freight, or anything else, to take with 
them, that might help to bear the expense of their 
long journey to market. In this way, it was thought, 
private conveyance could be found more comfortable 
and pleasant than by stage. So all were busy. Bar- 
gains must be made ; canvas coverings for the wagons, 
provisions and general supplies must be secured in 
true emigrani: style, for hotels were far apart, and 
the belated traveler was often obliged to spend the 
night on the prairie. 

Denmark, Lee County, Iowa, was now the termi- 
nus looked for, but was to be reached by dififerent 
routes. One party, the brethren with wives, in com- 
pany with Rev. A. B. Hitchcock with his wife, at that 
time missionary at Davenport, were to strike across 
for Davenport on the Mississippi, then go by boat to 
Burlington, and thence to Denmark. The others 
were tO' take a more southerly course, direct to Bur- 
lington, and so to Denmark. 



24 



////: ion. I n.ixp 



Xmv l)egan Western life ; — and. for a while, it was 
well enjoyed. Now in a slong^h in the bottom-lands 
of some sluggish stream, and now high up on the 
rolling- prairie : what a vast extent of land meets the 
e}e. — land in e\er\- direction, with scarce a shrub or 
a tree to be seen ! How like a black ril)bon upon a 
carpet of green stretches awa) in the distance before 
them the road they are to travel! And occasionally 
some far-off cloth-covered wagon like their own is 
descried, like a vessel at >ca. right 1\' named a 
"l)rairie schuoncr." In the settled ])ortions. what 
farms! what fences! how indikc their luistern homes! 
Xo stones, no barns, children and pigs running to- 
gfether. Then what places in which to sleep! and 
what breakfasts! If, after a morning ride, they made 
a lucky sto]), such honey! such milk! such butter and 
egg^s ! and all so cheaj). — twelve and a half cents a 
meal ! 

Day by day they traveled on. gazing, wondering, 
remarking and beings remarked upon. Some thought 
them "land-sharks," some Mormons. But even this 
became at last wearisome and monotonous. On 
Saturday afternoon, the southern party, worn with 
travel, halted at Galesburg for another Sabbath's 
rest. 

^Monday morning found them early on their way, 
refreshed, and eager for the end. "To-day." thought 
they, ''the setting sun is to look with us upon the 
great ?vIississip}M ;" and so it proved. For an hour or 



THE JOLRXJiV 25 

so, near the close of tlie day, they had l^een winding 
and jolting through timbered bottom-lands among 
huge trees, grand in their silence, gazing the while 
earnestly forward, till at last it was seen, — the 
smooth, broad bosom of the great river, with the last 
silvery rays of the setting sun playing upon it. 

"Three cheers," cried they, "for the Mississippi !" 
Their hearty cheers rang out upon the forest ; and, 
in a few^ moments more, they were on the river's 
bank. But the ferry-boat had just made its last trip 
for the day; and, though they hallooed for help, no 
one responded to the call. The twilight deepened. It 
w^as soon dark, save as the stars and the moonbeams 
sparkled and danced upon the w^aters. The hallooing 
had ceased as useless, and things looked desperate ; 
but the dip of a paddle was heard, and a canoe soon 
came in sight. It w^as a chance to cross the river, — 
twenty-five cents apiece, and a bark of limited accom- 
modations. Brothers Salter and Turner declared 
they would rather stay by the stuff all night, lli? 
others paid the price, and stepped in. It w^as a heavy 
load for a light canoe, and all must remain motionless. 
So, in stillness and silence, with God's stars looking 
dow'U upon them, they were paddled across to Iowa's 
shore. 

Now in low^a, at Burlington ! Kind friends, e^'en 
here, were awaiting their arrival ; and, as the news 
spread, they w^ere soon constrained to turn from tav- 
ern fare to Christian homes. The watchers bv the 



26 I'HE IOWA BASn 

stuff came over in tlie iiiornino-; and before another 
ni\c:lit they had traveled fifteen miles on Iowa soil 
to Denmark. They had seen the Western pastor in 
his home, and he had scattered them for hospitality 
among the members of his tlock." The northern party 
soon came in safety. All were to rest a while, and 
then scatter. 



mw. 




CHAPTER VI 

ORDINATION AND DISPERSION 

ON Sabbath morning, Nov. 5, 1843, ^^^^ usually 
quiet town of Denmark was all astir. A great 
event was to occur. Every child had heard that nine 
young ministers, fresh from the East, had come to 
preach in the Territory. In anticipation of the event. 
Rev. Asa Turner and Rev. Reuben Gaylord had taken 
a long tour to spy out the land, and decide upon the 
places to be occupied ; and on that Sabbath seven of 
these young ministers were to be ordained. Den- 
mark then consisted of a few scattered farmhouses 
of New-England-like appearance ; and convenient 
thereto stood a low, broken-backed, elongated build- 
ing, compelled as yet to the double service of school 
and meeting-house. 

This, at the appointed hour, was the center of at- 
traction. The council had previously been organized, 
and the candidates examined. The members of the 
Band then ordained were Edwin B. Turner, William 
Salter, Ebenezer Alden, Jr., Horace Hutchinson, 
Ephraim Adams, Daniel Lane and Benjamin A. 
Spaulding. With them were ordained W. A. Thomp- 
son, who came to the Territory about the same time, 



'^o THli IOWA BAND 

and I). Ciraui^cr. who was already here as a Hcentiatc. 
The exercises were : sermon by the Rev. J. A. Reed, 
from Acts JO : 28 (the subject was. "rrere(]u"sites 
to Success in the Gospel Ministr}") : ordaining- prayer 
by the i\e\. Asa Turner; charge by the Rev. C. l>urn- 
ham ; right hand of fellowship 1)y the Rev. Reu1:)en 
(laylord. 

The house, oi course, was crowded, and the occa- 
sion one of great interest. To the few brethren al- 
read\' in tlie field, it was a day of rejoicing. Said 
Ilrother (^axlord. "Such a (la\- I had never seen l)e- 
ft)re ; such a day 1 had never expected t(^ see in m\' 
lifetime. The most I coidd do. when alone, was to 
weep tears of joy. and retiUMi thanks to God." 

'Idiis was an interesting and solenm occasion; but 
there had been, a day or two i)revious. in the pastor's 
study, a meeting of still greater interest to the young 
ministers. It was a meeting in which t]ie\- were 
to decide among themselves in what i)articular place 
the scene of the future labors of each should be. In 
former times, and far away, they had often met for 
prayer, often asked God to guide them in their way. 
He had guided them ; had turned their hearts to 
Iowa, and brought them thither ; and now. with or- 
dination vows soon to be taken, they had met to de- 
cide where, in the wide field around them, each should 
labor. It was a solemn meeting, a delicate business, 
a time when self must be laid aside, and each must be 
willing to be anything, to go anywhere. A prayer 



ORDINATION AND DISPERSION 29 

was offcrcil that the Spirit uf God niig-ht be upon 
them, and with them. Then Fathers Turner and 
Gaylord, who had explored the field, came in, and, 
map in hand, described their tour, and the places vis- 
ited, and retired. 

Now, by free suggestion and mutual consent, the 
assignment began. Brother Hutchinson, for peculiar 
reasons, as was well known, was inclined to Burling- 
ton, and Harvey Adams to Farmington. None were 
disposed to object ; and so their destination was fixed. 
''Those having wives," it was said, "ought to be pro- 
vided for in places as comfortable as any in the Terri- 
tory." A minister-seeking man from Keosauqua had 
claimed Brother Lane as the one of his choice. His 
promises were fair, and he was gratified. Blooming- 
ton, since called Muscatine, then "a smart town" of 
four hundred inhabitants, on the Mississippi, seemed 
a good place for one with a family ; and so this, by 
common consent, was ceded to Brother Robbins : and 
thus the wives were provided for. 

Away out in the new purchase, in the region of 
the old Indian Agency, new fields were opening, 
calling mostly for itinerant labor for the present, and 
endurance of frontier hardships as a good soldier. 
Brother Spaulding would as soon take this position 
as any other ; and thither was his face turned. Some 
must go up into the northern counties of Jackson and 
Jones. This was far distant, to be sure, and the re- 
gion not thicklv settled: but then, the more northern 



30 THE IOWA BAND 

the location, the more luisteni the people; ami that 
part of the state would some time he tilled up. 
Brothers Salter and Turner, the David and Jonathan 
of the company, rather liked the idea of exploring this 
portion of the field together, and deciding for them- 
selves where to locate. This they did, eventually 
finding themselves. — the former at Ma(iuoketa, and 
the latter at Cascade. The two places yet remaining, 
which then seemed the most important, were Solon 
and Mt. Pleasant : for these there were two brethren, 
Ebene/.er Alden and l''])hraim Adams, who said they 
would settle the matter by themselves; which they 
did by referring it that evening to I'\ather Turner, 
lie assigned Mr. Alden to Sol<>n. anrl Mr. Adams to 
Mt. Pleasant. 

So the work was done with perfect harmony and 
good will, — quickly done, without an unpleasant 
word or a jealous thought ; and every one was satis- 
fied. Considering the nature of the meeting and the 
issue thereof, let God be praised ! 

On Sabbath night, Xov. 5, 1843, ^s each retired to 
rest after having been ordained to his work, he had 
his particular field in view. On Monday morning all 
was bustle, preparatory to their departure. Occa- 
sionally, as they met in passing to and fro, there was 
the grasp of the hand, the hearty ''Good-bye !" and 
"The Lord bless you!" ''Let us remember Tuesday 
night," was the parting suggestion. The meeting al- 
luded to in the pastor's study was the last ever held 



ORDINATION AND DISPERSION 31 

by the Band at which all the nicnihcrs were together.' 
Such a meeting- on earth where all were present, there 
now can never be. 

• Note No. 4 and Appendix I. 



CHAPTER MI 
GETTIXG TO UORK .IXP CO.lLliSCIXC 

IX'J'IMATI^LV connected, \ct widely difYerent. are 
theory and practice. The theory we spin out in 
thoui^ht. speech and h(H)ks ; the practice we find amid 
the \ilal forces, the hxini;- issues and interests of 
actual life. Kii^ht here it is that our previous in- 
structions sonietinies ap])ear almost useless, our no- 
tions visionary, and our plans futile. I'or success in 
an\ calliui^- or profession, more is to he learned than 
can he learned prior to entering:;- upon it. 

( )\ no profession, perhaps, is this more true than 
of the ministerial. At^ainst the usual preparatory 
course throu.q;h ten \ears of study, in academy, col- 
lege and seminary, not a word is to be said: it is by 
no means useless. In many respects, and in most 
cases, it is essential ; hut it alone can never (jualify one 
for the ministerial work. This is never found to be 
precisely what it seems in books. It includes many 
an experience and emergency for which the previous 
training has given no real preparation ; while much 
of the so-called preparation that has been made, how^- 
ever cherished and relied upon, will be found like the 
armor of Saul on the youthful David, and can only 
be put aside as cumbersome and useless. 



GETTING TO WORK AX I) COALESCIXG 33 

Often the young minister finds himself eoming 
awkwardly into his calling, because he seeks to carry 
into it the full panoply of the schools, or of favorite 
theological giants, instead of going to his work sim- 
ply in the name of the Lord. The process of getting 
to work so as to work successfully, in which every 
one has so much to learn that has not been taught 
him by books and teachers, is always more or less a 
process of disappointments and failures. A modifica- 
tion of previous views and plans becomes necessary. 
There are frequent calls for self-adjustments and 
adaptations, to meet unthought-of exigencies ; so 
that the man often, in the course of a few years, comes 
out far different in many respects from what he had 
proposed. So it proved in the case of the classmates, 
who, in a few short days, were taken from the quiet 
scenes of student life at Andover, and set down — one 
here, and another there — as home missionaries in 
Iowa. 

One, from the representations then frequent re- 
specting the moral wants of the West, had pictured 
to himself a country destitute of preachers, and a 
people, with the recollections of Christian homes 
fresh in their memories, all eager to hear the gospel. 
He had fancied, that, when once among them, the sim- 
ple announcement that he came as a minister would 
be enough immediately to draw about him those 
famishing for the bread of life. ''Oh, what a joy," 
thought he, "to be a home missionary!" 



34 THE low. I B.ixn 

liiKiL^iiK' llic chaiiijc in liis \ic\vs as lie loinul. in 
tlie place to which he was assigned, ihc great majority 
of the people not only jnst as indifferent as elsewhere, 
but, owing to the sharp, worldly features of a stirring 
Western town," even more so. The few that had any 
interest at all in religious thin^i^s were cut U]) into 
clicjues and (k-noniinations of all sorts, some of which 
he IkhI newr heard ot before; and. to meet their 
wants, there was a minister or preacher of some kind 
at every corner of the streets, making- it, as the Sal)- 
bath came, not only difficult to find a place or an hour 
in which to preach, but more difficult still to secure 
any thinq; like a stated congregation from Sabbath to 
Sabbath. Here was actual experience as against the 
theory of home-missionary hfe. 

Tn his mind, another one of this untried Band had 
l)lanned on this wise: "I am going to Iowa; and, 
when I get there, I am going to have my study and 
lii)rarv. Then 1 am going to write two sermons a 
week ; and. when the Sabbath comes. I am going to 
preach them, and the people, if they want the gospel, 
must come to hear." Well, he came to Iowa to find 
his home, for the time being, in the house of kind 
Christian people, in which the one room must answer 
all the needs of the family, with those of the new min- 
ister superadded. The familiar quilt of those days par- 
titioned off one corner for his bedroom and study ; and 
his study-chair was a saddle. As for written sermons, 

"^ Mount Pleasant. 



GETTING TO WORK AND COALESCING 35 

they were, of course, few; and if any one was com- 
pelled to go about in search of the people, instead of 
being sought by them, it was William Salter. 

A third, Alden B. Robbins, fancied that he would 
have three or four preaching-places far enough apart 
to enable him to preach on the same subjects in each 
place. So he was calculating on time and opportunity 
to work up extempore sermons of great pov;er on 
important subjects. He found himself, and for years 
has stood, where, with some of the same hearers from 
Sabbath to Sabbath, the constant demand w^as for two 
written sermons to be prepared each week, and, at 
the same time, cut off from the usual relief of minis- 
terial exchange and of annual vacations. 

Twenty-five years ago (1843), Nauvoo, the city of 
the Mormons, was in its glory. Dr. Lyman Beecher 
had sounded, through the East, alarms of Catholicism 
in the West. These two opposing forces, it w^as sup- 
posed, would at once confront any Christian laborer 
going West, and meet him at every turn. So Mc- 
Gavin's ''Protestantism," a huge work, was procured 
and studied, the Mormon Bible perused, and in other 
directions special preparations made to meet them, 
for must not the workman go forth prepared for his 
w^ork ? 

In fact, however, the most of our young missiona- 
ries for years never saw a Mormon ; and, as for Ca- 
tholicism, this was by no means the only hostile isin 
in the land. They found a people starting homes, in- 



36 THE IOWA B.IXD 

sliUitiuiis, usages, laws, customs, in a new territory; 
gathered from all parts of the country antl the world; 
coming together wiili differing tastes, prejudices, 
ideas and plans; and representing all shades of belief 
and disbelief. Every phase of error, that any age or 
country had ever seen, was here cropping out. They 
soon found that they were where, if their lives were 
to be of use, if they were not to be swallowed up by 
the forces around them. the\- must l)e positive and 
earnest. They nuist set forth the best platform under 
God they could, and. as earnest men, set aboiU l)uild- 
ing- thereon. What that i)latform was to be. and what 
the work to be done upon it. was not so much of a 
question as how to do it ; w hat to unlearn, and what 
to learn ; how to be adapted to circumstances ; when 
to take (^n new methods and ways, and when to cling- 
to the old ; and how. especially, to mingle among the 
people, not only as aiuong but of theiu. so as, by iden- 
tity of feeling and interest, to gain their confidence 
and affection, and so an open ear. and by God's grace, 
an open heart. 

After the ordination and dispersion came this 
process of getting to work, each in his own field, and 
coalescing, — this process, we will not say. of turning 
from the Eastern to the Western man, but rather of 
growing from the Eastern into the Western, in which 
somewhat of over-niceties and the restraints of eti- 
quette and form are laid aside. 

"How do you like the new minister?" was asked 



GETTING TO Jl'ORK AND COALESCING 37 

of a resident in a connt}' where Brother Ebenezer 
Aklen was thus getting to work. "Oh, we all believe 
in him," was the reply ; showing how Eastern habits 
and culture were no barrier, as they sometimes are, 
to access to the hearts of the hardy pioneers. In this 
l)rocess of getting to work, in the course of a year or 
two things w^ere fully settled. 

First, w^hat, ecclesiastically, the platform of the 
missionaries was to be. This in the case of each w^as 
Congregational. With a number, when they came 
to the Territory, the matter of church polity was an 
open question. Decided instructions in the Seminary 
had not been given. There had been no conference 
respecting it, one with the other, by which any con- 
clusion or agreement had been reached as to whether 
they should be Congregationalists or Presbyterians. 
The feeling was, that, very likely, some w^ould be one, 
and some the other. Nor, after they came, were any 
pains taken by the Congregational brethren on the 
ground to influence them in this matter. But in the 
providence of God, by the fitness of things soon per- 
ceived, wath one consent they thought best to build 
upon what, with a single exception, had been the 
foundation of their fathers. In after years they 
thanked God that it was so.^ 

Secondly, they had in affection, feelings, interests 
and aims, coalesced with the brethren who preceded 
them. These were few ; not so many by half as those 

Note 5. 



38 THE IOWA B.IXD 

who recnforced them. Coming in such comparal..e 
numbers as classmates in the same seminary, as did 
the Iowa r.aiul, and at so early a period in the liislor\' 
oi the state, it would not ha\e been strange, if. iu the 
minds of the l)rethrcn already here, there had been 
the sui;_L;estion at least, if not the fear, that the new- 
eoiiK-rs would be clannish in their feelin<;-, banded 
together, and standing apart from others ; not only 
disposed to set aside those who were here before, but 
dictatorial and assuming over those who should come 
after them. If any such suggestion or fear there was, 
ouc \ear was sutVicient to disi)el it.'" 

With oi)en hands and warm hearts were they re- 
cc'i\ed: and the conuuon interests and ex])eriences of 
home-missionary life Si.on l)oun(l all together as one. 
.\s they coalesced with those who had preceded them, 
so have others coming later, till the bnva ministry of 
the Congregational churches has beccjuie a band in- 
deed : and though that i)art of it known as the Iowa 
r>and has thus far been made prominent in this home- 
missionary record, and. in the circumstances, may 
]:>roperly, ])erha])s, occasionally be so made in what 
follows, yet be it understood, that, as to work accom- 
])lished and results reached, honor is due, under God, 
not to them alone, but to all who have labored with 
them. — to those who have come in at a later period as 
well as to those who were here before them. 

'" Note No, 6. 



CHAPTER \I1I 

A DIARV' 

STILL further to illustrate, and as affording, to 
some extent, a little more of an inside view of 
this process of getting to work, we give in this chap- 
ter a brief diary. It contains the observations of one, 
who, in that first year, was called to visit the most of 
his brother ministers at their homes. The tour begins 
upon the banks of the Des Moines at Keosauqua. 

July i6, 1844. — Here are Brother Lane and wife 
in their little home with two rooms. They have a 
chair or two now, and a table ; but they say they set 
up housekeeping without either, using, instead, old 
boxes. They have a church of a few members, a vil- 
lage of promise, and the people are kind. On the 
whole, they are in good spirits and hopeful. The 
church is organized as Presbyterian ; but its members 
are not all of that way of thinking. Brother Lane is 
coming to be very decided that Congregationalism is 
the true Bible way; is really quite conscientious about 
it. A majority are with him in opinion. How things 
will turn out, I can't tell. 

July t8. — At Mount Pleasant to-night. Found 

1' Note 7. 
39 



40 



Tim IOWA H.ixn 



Brother Ephraini Adams well. He has a study at a 
tavern, and "boards round," like a schoolmaster. No 
church organized, or next to none. He groans over 
sects and divisions, and hopes somehow to get some of 
them together. Says he sometimes thinks there arc 
more ministers West than Kast. ihic can do nothing 
in this place till he takes his stand, and goes lo work. 
It is not so much destitution as it is indisposition, 
selfishness and self-seeking of the human heart here 
as everywhere. 

July H). — Came up to Brighton. Tliis is a farming 
setllemenl. a nund)er of intelligent, i)ious families. 
I'rother lUnaiham is the minister here; used to know 
him in college, lie has a house: it is uni)ainte(l, no 
carpets in it, a poor fence around it, wood pile near, 
and pigs loose. Does n't look much like a New Eng- 
land parsonage. I wonder if this is n't the way for 
a minister to do, — tt^ get a home, and grow up with 
the people. Farmers are the basis of everything; and 
he has a good field. 

Mo)iday, July 22. — This (Iowa City) is the state 
capital, the great city of Iowa, of which everybody 
has heard, of four hundred inhabitants. It has a pleas- 
ant location, however, and plenty of room. Went 
into the state library ; while looking about, met an old 
gentleman, who proved to be Governor Lucas, the ex- 
governor of the territory. He was affable, and inter- 
ested to show me about the city ; took me down half 
a mile or so to see some mineral springs. I felt di, 



A DIARY 



41 



little awkward to have such attention paid me by so 
old a man. Spent the Sabbath h^re with the Rev, W. 
\V. Woods, AI.D., of the New School Presbyterian 
church, and preached for him. There is an Old 
School church here also, but no Congregational. 
Neither of the churches having any meeting-house, 
they hold meetings in the State House, — one in the 
Representatives', the other in Senators' Hall. These 
two halls are opposite each other ; so that, as the doors 
were open wdiile the people were collecting, when w^e 
took our seats in the desk w^e could look across 
through the opposite hall and see the Old School min- 
ister in his desk at the other end of the building. 
"Now," whispered the doctor, "now the watchmen see 
eye to eye." Didn't think 't was just the place for 
such a pun, — so sadly false, too ! Long time, I fear, 
it wall be before the Old School friends will see eye 
to eye with the New School brethren, or us either; 
for they look upon us with suspicion!, say we are un- 
sound, and won't even exchange with us. Oh, wdiat 
a pity that all these little places should be so cut up ! 
Glad w^e have n't any church here. 

July 23. — This day's ride on my faithful pony, for 
I 've forgotten to say that I now own one — price 
forty-five dollars — has brought me tO' Tipton, 
county-seat of Cedar County. Here found Brother 
Alden. He has a study, a little ground room 
right on the street, in a "lean-to" of a store, over 
which lives the family. Horses stand around, these 



42 



THE IOWA BASn 



lu)t clavs. kicking the tlios ; and when he is out the 
pigs run in. unless he is careful to shut the door. 
Poor place. 1 should think, for writing sermons. Par- 
tition so thin that all the store talk, especially when 
the doors are open, is plainly heard. 

It being Tuesday evening, we of course wished to 
remember the Tuesday evening prayer-meeting, but 
wanted a more private place for it : so went out in 
search of »Mie. Came to a two-story log building used 
for a jail, which happened to be empty, with the doors 
open. Went uj) 1)\- an outside stairway to the up])er 
room, and there, with the mo(~)n sailing over the 
prairies, had our meeting; prayed for each other, for 
the brethren, for Iowa, for home. Not exactly like 
the old Andover meetings in the library, but some- 
thing like them. Coming d<^wn again to the ground, 
UrotluT Alden looked uj) in his queer way: "There," 
said he. "1 guess that's the first time that old building 
ever had a prayer in it." Just as cheerful and funny 
as ever ; but he is doing a good work here, and get- 
ting hold of the hearts of everybody. Indeed, he is 
becoming quite a bishop of the county. "The first 
time there was ever a prayer in it !" I wonder in how 
many places and ways we shall do the first things for 
Christ in this new country ! 

July 24. — Am here in De\\'itt. a little place with 
a few buildings on a big prairie. But how I got here, 
which way I traveled, I can't tell. I only know that 
in the morning I gave myself up to the pilotage of the 



A DIARY 



43 



mail-carrier. Soon after starting, he turned his horse 
off the road into the prairie, and I followed. Since 
then my head has been in a kind of a whirl, the points 
of the compass lost ; and I can only think of prairie- 
grass, bottom-lands, sloughs, a river forded, a cabin 
or two by the way, and little groves here and there, 
all jumbled up together. But I am here ! Looking 
at the map, I reason myself into the belief that I have 
really traveled from Tipton to DeWitt. Here is 
where Brother Emerson lives, a man whom I have 
long wished to see. It was his account, in ''The 
Home Missionary," of the manner in which a gang of 
horse-thieves was broken up at Bellvue, that turned 
my attention to Iowa. Somehow I then felt that there 
was work to be done in such a country, and that I 
would like to labor near such a man ; and here I am 
at his home. He is a whole-souled, earnest brother, 
and takes you right in. No danger, I guess, that we 
and those who were on the ground before us wall not 
feel as one. 

One good thing about this trip is to get acquainted 
with the older brethren, to see the different fields, to 
know what the land is. Brother Emerson says he 
located here because it was so central. If this is a 
center, there is no trouble in finding a similar one on 
any of these big prairies. 

July 26. — Came up to-day tO' Maquoketa, where I 
expected to find Brother Salter. Learning that he 
was absent, having gone north, came on up through 



44 



THE IOWA BAND 



Andrew, a little stumpy town in the woods, to this 
place, Cottonville, the home of Deacon Cotton. So 
I am the guest, to-night, of one of the direct descend- 
ants of old John Cotton of Puritan memory, in this 
far-oflf Iowa ; and a nice old man he is. Before leav- 
ing the East, an old Christian lady, a mother in Israel, 
learning I was going to Iowa, came, saying that she 
had a son-in-law in Iowa for whom she felt greatly 
concerned, and gave mc his address, with the injunc- 
tion, if 1 ever went near liini. to go and see him, and 
do him all the good I could. T took the address, 
never expecting really to go near him. but find that 
to-day I have passed right by his door. Sorry I had 
not kept it more in my mind. This impresses me 
more than ever with one feature of the mission work ; 
it is, to do here, among the scattered people, what the 
Eastern fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, are 
contributing, longing and praying to have done. I 
must be more careful. 

Deacon Cotton says Brother Salter has taken a trip 
up into \\'isconsin, about Potosi ; that he is inclined 
to think he will not stay in this field long. Hope he 
won't leave Iowa : I '11 find him if I can. 

July 2y. — Am up now as far as Dubuque. Here is 
W'here really the first white man crossed the river to 
dwell. He had a grant from government to trade in 
this mining region with the Indians. The place takes 
his name ; and the whole region is honeycombed with 
the miners' diggings. Great fortunes have been 



A DtAkV 45 

made ; but many a splendid prospect fails. So it is 
in all things else. Some say that if all the labor ex- 
pended in digging for lead had been expended 
upon the surface of the ground, about six inches 
deep, the people generally would be better of¥. 
However this may be, a "right smart town" of a few 
hundred people is here. Brother Holbrook preaches 
here, and has, I am told, great influence. He is away 
now at the East to get funds towards repairing the 
church. It needs it ; for it is a stone building with 
bare, unplastered walls inside. Yet it is the only house 
of worship built expressly for this object that we have 
in the Territory. By urgent solicitation of the breth- 
ren, am to spend the Sabbath here. 

July 31. — Up, up, still farther north, here at Jack- 
sonville (now Garnavillo), the county-seat of Clayton 
County. I have now traversed northward, on my 
horseback trip, about two hundred and fifty miles. 
Since leaving Dubuque I have been so tossed about 
that I could not use my diary : so I must write up a 
little. 

Started on Monday morning in search of Brother 
Salter. Came up to Potosi Landing. There crossing 
the river, soon got on his track, and after inquiring 
for him from house tO' house, found him at last, doing 
good mission work among the people. It was truly 
a surprise-meeting. Glad to learn that he was true to 
Iowa, and was to return soon to his field. Stayed with 
him that night in a neat log cabin of some young mar- 



46 THE lOJVA BAND 

ried people, who said they were from Maine. Might 
have known they were from Yankee-land, if they 
had n't told us. by the morning-glories around the 
door and the general air of things in and around the 
cabin. There will be a good house there some time, 
and a Christian home, too, I trust. 

Next day, about noon, crossed back again into this 
best part of the world, on the flatboat ferry at Cass- 
ville Landing, at the mouth of the Turkey River. That 
afternoon liad (|uitc a time. I was on the south side 
of the river, and the first ford was ten miles up stream, 
the track leading for the most part through a hilly 
forest. From recent rains, the river was much swol- 
len, making, by backwater, every stream putting into 
it impassable at the mouth: so my work that after- 
noon was principally heading those streams. It was 
in one of these, as 1 urged m\- horse down a steep 
bank into deeper water than I supposed, that I was 
thrown full length, when saddle-bags, sermons and 
papers went floating. Fortunately I gathered them 
all up, and came on. Reached the ferry near night, 
where the ferryman swam my horse for me, and took 
me over in a canoe. I was then twelve miles from this 
place, and started on with quickened speed. Just as 
it was getting dark, as I was querying whether or no 
I could keep the road, my horse turned into a by-path, 
and shot around a clump of bushes with a will. 
Thinking he must have some intent in this, I gave 
him the rein. In about five minutes he took me 



A DIARY 



4; 



Up to a fence and a light. There I stopped for the 
night. 

It was the cabin of an old sea-captain, Captain Reed. 
His wife, for years a praying Christian woman, in 
poor health, and somewhat deaf, was once a member 
of Father Kent's church in Galena. Illinois, but now is 
living away alone, as a sheep in the wilderness. On 
learning I was a minister, she was greatly rejoiced. 
We talked ; she told me much of her history and ex- 
perience ; we read the Bible ; we prayed. I stopped 
that night in the house of the Lord. In the morning 
she thanked me over and over for the good she re- 
ceived ; but I felt, and feel now, that she did me far 
more good than I did her. Experience, with the 
chastenings of the Lord, confers that which seminaries 
and colleges can never give. We come out here to 
preach ; but there are those who preach to us more 
effectively than we to them. 

That day I came to this place. Here are Brother 
Hill and wife. The settlement is on a beautiful prairie 
ridge, and there are many fine families here. Brother 
Hill and wife are boarding at present, and have before 
them a fine field. He enters it with his usual staid, 
steady tread ; but she throws herself into it with the 
enthusiasm of her whole soul. Long may they live 
to labor here ! The next place north, they say, is 
Sodom, and then the Indians : so I guess I'll turn back. 

From this point, our tourist, on his return, retraces 



^8 THli lOlrA BAND 

pretty much the path l)y which he came; so that we 
find in his chary nothing- of new interest until he 
comes down to Davenport, on the Mississippi. Here 
we cjuote as follows : — 

Aug. 10. — Came down to this place to-day, from 
DeW'itt. (3l all the rivers in the territory, and I be- 
lieve now I have seen them all, I think theWapsipini- 
con is the worst. Such ugly bottom-lands, and, in- 
deed, such sloughs as I have had all day long! A 
hard ride : but 1 find here a beautiful place, the most 
beautiful natural location on the Mississippi, some 
say ; and I know of none that excels it. There are 
here al)out fi\e hundred people. I have heard the 
place spoken of as a good location for a college. 
I see nothing to the contrary. There is certainly 
beauty of scenery. Probably it will not be much of 
a point for business ; and a literary institution with 
such surroundings would attract a class of people 
congenial to itself. Here I am the guest of a new ac- 
quaintance. Brother Hitchcock, who preaches here. I 
believe, though, he is to leave before long to go to 
jMoline, Illinois, a new village just starting on the 
other side of the river, three miles above Rock Island. 
I am to spend the Sabbath here, and' shall be glad of 
the rest. I am getting about enough of travel. As 
to clothes, between the excessive rains, hot sun and 
horseback wear, they are beginning to look pretty 
rust v. 



A DIARY 



49 



Monday Morning, Aug. 12, 1844. — Preached yes- 
terday in the forenoon for the Congregationalists in 
a httle building put up for a dwelHng-house, and now 
used for a schoolhouse, situated on what is known as 
Ditch Street : twelve hearers. They are building, 
however, a neat little church, about twenty-eight by 
thirty-eight, on which I see that Brother H. works 
daily. Wonder if this is the way, when it comes to 
church-building, that the minister has to turn in as 
head carpenter to ''boss the job !" In the afternoon 
yesterday, by invitation, preached for the Baptists. 
In the course of the sermon was a little vexed as I 
noticed two ladies smiling at some holes in my coat- 
sleeve, revealed by my gesturing. Drew down my 
arms, and their faces, too, by preaching straight at 
them. Perhaps, on this account, I preached with 
more point and earnestness than usual ; for after 
meeting an Old School Presbyterian said he would 
give five dollars if I would stop and preach a year in 
the place. Felt it quite a compliment, considering the 
source. 

Aug.j^i' — At Bloomington.'" The greatest effort 
at town building this. From four to six hundred peo- 
ple here are pitched into gullies, and tossed about on 
the hills. But here I have a hearty welcome by 
Brother Robbins and wafe. They are getting ahead of 
all the rest by a little new-comer to their household. 
Mrs. Robbins laughs at the bachelor brethren, and 

'2 Now Muscatine. 



50 THE IOWA BAXD 

pretends to have such a care of them. IMaterials here 
for a good church ; and, if the place ever is anything, 
no doubt there will be a good one. 

Aug. i6. — At Burlington. Have been here before 
cpiite frequently. Nothing specially new now. 
Brother Hutchinson is working away quite hopefully, 
though his health is not very firm. Nothing new, I 
say? — yes. there is one thing new. in the shape of an 
utterance of one Rev. Mr. White, a Cumberland Pres- 
byterian minister, in a piece published in the paper, 
to which P>rother Hutchinson called my attention. It 
is so modest, I must put it down as so much his- 
tory : — 

"Observation has taught me that many honest per- 
sons have heard Iowa misrepresented. So far from 
being a land of heathens, it is becoming densely pop- 
ulated by people of intelligence, from not only dififer 
ent parts of the United States, but of the Eastern and 
\\'estern Continents. The people are able to support 
their ministers ; and it is an insult offered to their in- 
telligence to have men stationed in their largest 
towns and villages, who receive from one to four hun- 
dred dollars per annum to instruct the brethren. 
Iowa is an unhealthy climate for theological dwarfs. 
^Ministers are needed who have clear heads, warm 
hearts ; whose sentences breathe, and whose words 
burn." 

O Brother W. ! you, then, must be one of the kind 
needed ; for vour sentences breathe, and vour w^ords 



A DIARY 51 

burn. We have heard of similar utterances made by 
unbelievers, especially by one of the leading judges"* 
of the territory when we came into it; but little did 
we expect that gospel ministers would join in the cry. 
The judge, however, apologized, as he found one of 
our number'* coming to be his next-door neighbor. 
Wonder if you ever \\\\\ ! 

Aug. 17. — At Denmark. This is a kind of a home 
for us all ; and I thought I would come over here to 
rest a little before going back to my field. I have cer- 
tainly taken quite a tour, and am glad of it. I have 
seen the brethren, seen their homes, know^ the coun- 
try, and trust I shall work the more heartily.'^ 

'•"■Judge Joseph Williams of Bloomington (now Muscatine); a good Metho- 
dist, not an unbeliever. 
» Bro. Robbins. 
'» Note 8. 



CHAPTER IX 
THEN AND XOJV 

IT is 1)\ no means proposed, in what follows, to i^ive 
a eonneeted history either of the Iowa Band or 
Iowa Missions for the last twenty-five years. We 
seek only to review a seene here and there, and put 
on record a few faels. wliich. while of interest to par- 
ties concerned, may stand to the credit of the great 
home missionary work. If but a glimpse of home 
missionar\- life can be ])resented, especially of its 
inner view, willi its joys yet not without its sorrows, 
our young men preparing for or entering the minis- 
try, we are sure, will be attracted rather than repelled 
by it. If we can hold up a few clusters gathered as 
the fruits of home missions in Iowa, it may encourage 
and stimulate all workers in this noble cause to push 
it onward with increasing vigor wherever there re- 
maineth land yet to be possessed. 

As preparatory to what is now proposed, nothing, 
perhaps, will serve better than to contrast the Iowa 
of twenty-five years ago with the Iowa of to-day. By 
this view of the "then and now," unfolding, as it must, 
the nature of the field occupied and the changes 
wrought, we can better appreciate the causes at work. 

52 



THEN AND NOW 53 

But going back twenty-five years brings us so near 
the beginning of all Iowa history, that a word or two 
of the prior period may not be amiss. 

From 1843, we go back but ten years to find the first 
settlement of the state. This was June i, 1833. Bj- 
fore that date, no white man had resided within its 
limits except the Indian traders and their depend- 
ents, and a few who crossed the Mississippi in defi- 
ance of all treaties. 

Of those who have labored here in the gospel, prob- 
ably the first Congregational minister whose privi- 
lege it was to look over into this promised land was 
the Rev. J. A. Reed. He saw it as: early as May, 1833, 
His point of observation was a town site in Illinois, 
called Commerce, consisting then of one log cabin 
and a cornfield, since known as Nauvoo. His eye 
could just distinguish blufTs and prairie, with timber- 
skirted streams. Gazing on the prospect, his reflec- 
tion was, that the land before him, all the way to the 
Pacific, was the abode only of savages. All seemed 
buried, as for ages, in the silence and sleep of savage 
life. 

During the first ten years of Iowa history, between 
1833 ^^<^ 1843, the only portion of the state open for 
settlement was a strip of country about forty miles 
wide and two hundred miles long, on the western 
bank of the Mississippi. So far out was this on the 
frontier, on the very borders of the Indian country, 
and so much good land was there unoccupied 



54 



THE I Oil A BAXD 



and easier of access between it and the older set- 
tlements of what was then the West, that its pop- 
ulation at first increased but slowly. In 1838, five 
years after its settlement began, the population of the 
territory numbered but 22,859. 

Prior to July 4, 1838, Iowa was included in the terri- 
torial government, first of Michigan and then of 
Wisconsin. At this date its own government was 
established, embracing in its limits the most of Vvhat 
is now Minnesota and Dakota. Its ]3resent bounda- 
ries were established when it was admitted into the 
Union as a state, in 1846. In 1840. its population 
had reached 42,500. In these first years the country 
was but little developed. Pioneer hardships and pri- 
vations were the common experience of the people. 
These were times in which the brethren tell of letters 
lying in the post-ofiice for want of money possessed, 
or to l)e ])orrowed. with which to pay postage. 

The religious condition of the people near the close 
of this first ten years, as near as August, 1842, is in- 
dicated by the statements of a writer in "The Home 
^Missionary" of that period. He puts down the num- 
ber of ministers in the Territory, of all denominations, 
as 42, and the number of professing Christians as 
2,133. ''Suppose," he says, ''that ten times this num- 
ber, or 21.330, come under the stated or transient in- 
fluence of the preached gospel, you have yet the as- 
tounding fact that there are 38,070 souls in the terri- 
tory destitute of the means of grace, a large portion 



THEN AM) NOW 55 

of whom are under the withering bhght of all sorts 
of pernicious error." 

Among the errors alluded to was Mornionisni. Its 
headquarters were at Xauvoo, 111. The town site 
with its one log cabin of ten years ago had now be- 
come a city of Latter-day Saints, claiming from six- 
teen to eighteen thousand people. All the males were 
under military drill, the men in one division, and the 
boys in another, to the number, it was said, of three 
thousand. There w^as not a school in the place. 
About this time Mormonism was sanguine. Its apos- 
tles were everywhere, traversing the new settlements 
with a zeal and success at once astonishing and alarm- 
ing. 

Infidelity, too, was presenting a bold front under 
the leadership of Abner Kneeland, first knov/n in 
Vermont as a Universalist minister, afterwards in 
Boston as an atheist. He had settled with a band of 
his followers, male and female, upon the banks of the 
Des Moines, to mould, if possible, the faith of the 
new settlers by ''substituting," as one has said, 
"Paine's Age of Reason, for the family Bible, the 
dance for the prayer-meeting, and the holiday for the 
Sabbath." Of the ministers and Christians spoken 
of as in the Territory near the close of the first ten 
years, a very few only were of the Congregational 
order. 

The first Congregational nn'nisters that explored 
this field w^ere the Rev, Asa Turner and the Rev. 



I 



56 THE IOWA BAND 

William Kirby. This they did in May, 1836. They 
found, as the principal settlements. Fort Aladison, 
Burlington, ]'\irniinorton. Yellow Sprini^s, Davenport 
and "Pleasant X'alley. Had they ci^ntinued their tour 
norlliward far enoui^h, they would have found Du- 
bu(|ue. with some other little settlements scattered 
here and there. 

The first resident Congregational minister in the 
state was the Rev. W". A. Apthorp. who came in the 
fall of 1836. lie preached for a year or two. mostly 
at h^ort Madison and Denmark. At Denmark, the 
first Congregational church in Iowa was formed, 
Ma\- 5. 1838. The ministers present were Messrs. 
Turner, Reed and Apthorj). Denmark was then 
about two years old. with a few log cabins and a 
frame building, twenty by twenty-four, which served 
as a schoolhouse and meeting-house, partly finished. 
The church was organized with thirty-two members. 
Every Xew England state but one was represented 
in it. Inmiediately on the organization of the church, 
Mr. Turner was invited to take charge of it; and the 
invitation was, after a few weeks, accepted. Mr. Ap- 
thorp was soon called to Illinois, and Mr. Turner was 
left the only Congregational minister in the state. 
So intimately connected with the history of our 
churches in after years did the church at Denmark 
and its pastor become, that Denmark is regarded as 
the cradle of Congregationalism in Iowa ; and to the 
revered pastor who so long labored there, the low'a 



THEN AND NOW 57 

ministry have given, by common consent, the appella- 
tion of "Father Turner." 

He (lid not long stand alone. Others came to his 
help, but not enough to supply the wants of even the 
slowly developing country around them. In a few- 
years, the population began to increase more rapidly. 
The openings for labor became more numerous, but 
the men to occupy the new fields came not. These 
were weary years, in which the few brethren here ex- 
plored the field, reported its wants, and then labored 
on without reenforcement. This they did till hope 
deferred not only made the heart sick, but made them 
almost despair. But at last, as we have seen, help 
came. 

Twenty-five years ago, what is now the state of 
Iowa was a territory, whose scattered settlements were 
mostly confined to the narrow strip of country before 
mentioned. The northern and western portions of it 
were still in the possession of the Indians. It was only 
a little farther west, about the center of the state, 
that the Indian title was extinguished in October, 
1843. Now the state stretches from the Mississippi 
to the Missouri, taking in a belt of land measuring 
from north to south nearly three hundred miles. 
Traversing the eastern portion of it are five noble 
rivers, nearly equidistant from and parallel to each 
other, running in a south-easterly direction tO' tlie 
Mississippi ; while on the western slope of the state 
are other rivers^ with their tributaries, tending to the 
Mi?30uri, 



58 THE IOWA BAND 

With this area of tifty-fivo thousaiul square miles, 
situated in the very heart of our country, embracing 
a variety of climate, bounded and intersected by the 
noblest rivers of the continent, Iowa is equal to any 
of her sister states in the richness of her soil, and 
more favored than some of them in the extent of her 
forests. Her water-courses abound with facilities for 
the manufacturer. Her mines of lead and coal and 
her quarries of marble are exhaustless sources of 
wealth. It is indeed a o^oodly land: so the thousands 
wlio have found a liome on its soil have esteemed it. 

The p:rowth of its population, though slow at first, 
has in later years been truly wonderful. In 1843, 
there were but about seventy thousand people in the 
state ; now there are over a million. In cities where 
then there were but a few hundreds, now there are 
thousands, and in some cases tens of thousands. 
Twenty-five years ago, a father in the ministry was 
calling with one of the Band on a family near the 
field of liis labor. \\'ishing to impress both the family 
.and the youthful minister with the grandeur of the 
Christian work in a new country, he remarked on 
this wise : *T have no doubt that the day will come, 
some time, that, within a region of ten miles around 
the place where we now stand, there will be as many 
as ten thousand people." The prophecy at the time 
seemed almost startling,'^ but that family is still living 
where they then were ; and, within the region alluded 

^« Note 9. 



THEN AND NOW 



59 



to, the people now are numbered by more than three 
times ten thousand, while the two ministers are still 
living, the older and the younger beholding in won- 
der the advancing growth. 

Meantime, as might be expected, the development 
of the state as a whole has been wonderful. The Iowa 
of to-day rivals many an older state in agricultural 
and mechanical productions ; while her coal-beds and 
her quarries are proving sources of unexpected 
wealth, and her mines of lead show no signs of ex- 
haustion. Her advance in all the arts and achiev - 
ments of civilized life has been rapid. There is no 
better index, perhaps, of the development of a coun- 
try than its facilities of travel, and, especially in these 
latter days, the number and location of its railroads. 
A glance shows how marked has been the progress 
in this respect. 

Twenty-five years ago the nearest approach by rail 
from the East was the city of Bufifalo. Travelers that 
would see the then Far West, just opening on this, 
t!ie farther side of the Mississippi, were compelled 
for the most part to cross over in skiffs, flat-boats 
or horse-boats. At one point only was there a steam- 
ferry. The mode of travel then was mostly on foot 
or horseback, guided often by Indian trails or blazed 
trees. Bridgeless streams and sometimes bottomless 
sloughs were to be crossed. 

Many are the incidents and adventures which the 
members of the Band and the older ministers have to 



6o THE IOWA BAND 

recount to their chiUlrcn and to one another of the 
(lavs in one sense so recent, in another so long ag'O, 
as they speak of their earl\- explorations in looking 
over their fields and hunting up the people. But 
these things have passed. Railroads have come. No 
less than five railroad-bridges across the Mississippi 
are, or are being, constructed, over which the iron 
lu)rse conies to find here a fresh pasture-ground for 
his wide roaming. I'^rom these five points start five 
main roads, crossing the state from east to west. 
Like her five principal rivers, they are about equi- 
distant from, and in the main parallel to, each other. 
Two of them already form the Iowa links in the great 
Pacific route, and others are pressing on. Mean- 
time, from north to soiitli. roads are projected, and 
parts of them completed; giving promise, at no dis- 
tant day. of a railroad system at once complete and 
adequate. In the aggregate, about fourteen hundred 
miles of railroad are already in operation, — an ex- 
tent nearly if not quite equal to all the railroads in 
the whole country twenty-five years ago. The whis- 
tle of the engine is fast becoming a familiar sound to 
the children of Iowa. 

The rivers, of course, have been bridged, and car- 
riage-roads have been made, as the necessities of the 
people have required. Twenty-five years ago the 
only public buildings of Iowa were a rickety peniten- 
tiary and a very ordinary State House : now, all over 
the state are scattered her public institutions of all 



THEN AND NOW 6l 

sorts, — homes for the orphan, asylums for the bhnd, 
the insane, and the deaf and dumb. Her present 
Capitor" stands in a city claiming a population of fif- 
teen thousand, where, at the coming of the Band, 
there was but a fort, seldom reached, so far was it in 
the heart of the Indian country. 

In addition to her State University, whose annual 
income exceeds twenty-five thousand dollars, her 
Agricultural College generously endowed, and a sys- 
tem of common schools magnificently provided for, 
there are, among her citizens, schools and colleges 
established by Christian enterprise, already standing 
high among the best institutions of the land. 

Thus, as by magic, in a few years has the wilderness 
been peopled. That profound sleep in which, when 
the first Congregationar minister gazed upon ii, the 
whole region seemed wrapped, has been broken. 
Towns, villages, cities, have sprung up, where, but 
a little while ago, no trace of civilization was visible. 
•With all this growth, giving life and vitality to it, 
have sprung up churches of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
We will not speak of these now ; but, when in the 
proper place we do, we shall find that here the tens 
have given place to hundreds, and the hundreds to 
thousands. 

Twenty-five years ago Iowa was almost unknown, 
and its character a blank ; now its fame is at once 
world-wide and enviable. Then it. was only a frontier 

^" Des Moines, whose population now is over 65,000. 



62 THE IOWA BAND 

territory, containini:^-, in the eye of the nation, but a 
few scattered homes of wild adventurers : now it is a 
state, and a state, too, of no mean rank in the center 
of states. Welcoming- to her soil, from the first, the 
principles of education. lil)crty and religion that have 
traveled westward from the land of the Pilgrims ; 
sending them, in due time, to the opening- plains of 
Kansas and Nebraska ; saying to the dark spirit of 
the South, that was ever struggling to press its way 
northward. "Thu^ far and no farther;" joining hands, 
in the meantime, with her sister states of the North 
and the Northwest in a friendly rivalry to develop 
and protect every noble interest and true, — she 
stands forth with the proud inscription already on her 
brow, "The Massachusetts of the West," — an in- 
scription placed there, not as in self-glorifying, by her 
own sons, but by friends abroad, as they have seen 
the freedom of her people, her schools and her 
churches, watched the integrity and wisdom of her 
legislators, felt her power in the councils of the nation, 
and especially as they have marked her noble record 
in the hour of the nation's peril. 

She was ever prompt with her full quota of men 
and means, and ever mindful of her soldiers in the 
field and their families at home. Of all her sister 
states, none were more lavish in these respects than 
she ; and yet she was the only one of them all to come 
out at the close of the war with her liabilities can- 
celed, and free of debt. Nor has she since been un- 



THEN AND NOW 62, 

true to the character then earned : she has made the 
path of freedom broad enough to include all her cit- 
izens ; and, in every case in which these United States 
have been called to pronounce upon any of the issues 
of the times, she has stood shoulder to shoulder on 
the side of progress with the noblest of them all. 
Such is the Iowa of to-day. Looking at things as they 
now are, we can hardly believe that they are the out- 
growth of the things few and feeble of twenty-five 
years ago. But so it is. There have been causes for 
this. Where and what are they? 



CHAPTER X 

THE WORKERS 

THE growth of a state, free and mighty, as are 
these states of the Northwest, is a grand event. 
It stands forth as tlie result, not of one cause, but of 
a thousand. Prominent among them, to say the least, 
is the gospel of Jesus Christ, the message of God to 
man by his Son. It is the preaching of this gospel, 
with the intUiences and institutions it includes, tliat, 
entering into the individual, domestic, social and 
civil life, gives character and prosperity to the state. 
To prove a proposition like this is no part of the pres- 
ent object : nor, with the history of our country before 
us, is it needlul. It is to the preachers, teachers and 
upholders of the gospel in Iowa, we are bold to affirm, 
that she is in no small degree indebted for what she is. 
Somewhat prominent among these are the Con- 
gregational ministers and churches of the state. With 
here and there an exception, these churches have all 
felt the fostering care of the American Home Mis- 
sionary Society, — a society which is more than its 
president, its executive committee and its secretaries. 
Be it ours. then, in this chapter, to set forth the 
workers here ; not the home missionaries only, but 

64 



THE IVORKIiRS 65 

their helpers also — all who have given or prayed in aid 
ot this work, or sympathized with them in it. If home 
missions can show a record of honor in Iowa, let the 
honor be shared by all who' should participate in it, 
and let the joys of it be widespread and mutual. 

The grand central figure, however, around which 
the picture must be drawn, is the home missionary 
himself. Look at him as he is, or rather as he was, 
twenty-five years ago. We have a young man with- 
out family, and, with possibly here and there an ex- 
ception, without friends, in the new territory to which 
he has come. His property inventories a few books, 
the clothes he wears, his trusty horse and a debt at 
the seminary. On a beautiful morning, as beautiful 
as the light, which is glorious, and the air, which is 
bracing, can make it, he is riding out from his home 
over the prairies into the surrounding settlements. 
He is in the ardor of youth, yet all things just now 
seem neither very bright, beautiful nor hopeful. The 
prairies, at first so fascinating in their novelty, by 
familiarity have grown tame and unattractive. They 
are now actually dreary, with their verdure stiffened 
by the frosts of autumn or burned to blackness by 
autumnal fires. The poetry of Western life and home 
missionary labor is fast changing to fact. The fires 
of a new experience are passing over him. What 
wonder now if his ride be somewhat lonely, and his 
thoughts flow in a serious, almost saddened, mood, 
as he queries with himself, — 



66 THE lOJVA BAND 

"What do I here? I came here to preach, but 
there are no meeting-houses and no churches. But 
few people care about my coming, going or staying. 
Among them all, who is there to lean upon? Nothing 
is organized. The materials are heterogeneous and 
discordant. There are no counselors near, no prec- 
edents, no established customs. With some denom- 
inations there are set rules and directions ; the way is 
marked out : this is of some advantage, at least. Some 
denominations, too, are popular ; mine is not ; is, in- 
deed, but little known, and many are prejudiced 
against it. 1 am to work here alone. In case of sick- 
ness or general failure of health, what then? L^oreign 
missionaries are provided for in this respect, but home 
missionaries are not. Who is so little supported from 
without as a home missionary? Who is put so much 
upon his self-reliance? And on whom does the whole 
work in which he is so engaged hang? And now, an 
inexperienced youili. what do I here? What is my 
life-work to be?" 

Oh. from the depths of how many hearts \v\2 these 
questions come up here in Iowa, and in all the newer 
missionary fields of the West ! How often, having 
left home and friends, church-steeples and the sound 
of church-going bells, behind him, and gone towards 
the setting sun till he found himself single-handed and 
alone on the very frontiers of civilization, has the 
home missionary in perplexity asked, "What do I 
here?" And how often has the question found an 



THE WORKERS 67 

answer in some moment of loneliness and sadness, 
when, in the absence of all human stays and sympa- 
thies, the soul has been thrown upon God, and, for 
the time, the whole being, the whole world even, has 
become as the Holy of holies, filled with the divine 



presence 



Then it is seen that there is work enough any- 
where ; and there are faith and courage to do it. It 
is thus that tO' the lonely missionary rider there 
springs up a light, and visions brighter than the 
brightness of the morning. God never seemed in his 
fulness to fill all things more than now in the sur- 
rounding solitudes. In a few years he sees that the 
virgin soil around him, with as yet no trace upon it 
save here and there a bridle-path, is tO' take on the 
fruits of husbandry and toil ; homes are soon to cover 
it; the silent forest is to be peopled, and the rivers' 
banks are to be thronged with artisans. For the 
people's need, for the glory of God, and that the land 
may be Christ's, he sees that spiritual seed rnust here 
be sow^n and spiritual harvests reaped. ''Here," he 
exclaims, "is my work ! With God for my counselor, 
and taking the customs, precedents and rules of his 
Word for my guide, here will I live and labor, and 
here will I die." 

Yes, noble Iowa, many are the germs of life labor 
that thus have been set within thee ! Out of them, 
many are the years of patient toil and work that have 
been given thee by those who brought salvation on 



68 THIi lOlVA BAND 

their longucs, whose feet Irod the rude dwellings of 
thy pionoors, who, in the ruder schoolhouses, first 
gathered thy children together to teach them the 
ways of the Lord, and whose very lives have flowed 
out into the industry, the thrift, the virtue and the in- 
tegrity of thy people. When as a young man thou 
rcjoicest in thy strength, forget not by what powers 
tliy sinews liave been knit, from wliom, in a measure, 
at least, the currents of thy life ha\e l)een fed. 

Iowa owes a debt even to the humble home mis- 
sionary ; but not to him alone, for with him. in him 
and through him. she has felt the power of thousands 
besides. That missionary entered upon his work with 
a commission, — a businesslike document, sending 
liim (tut. ])erhai)s. to find a field. <»r a place in which to 
make one ; drawing out, somewhat in detail, the na- 
ture of the duties enjoined, with the requisition of 
quarterly reports to be made, and the promise of pe- 
cuniary aid in a certain sum stipulated : all duly 
signed by accredited agents, — the secretaries of the 
Home Missionary Society. Accordingly, laboring 
through the months of the first quarter, hunting, up 
the lost sheep of the house of Israel, sowing seed as 
he may beside all waters, with somewhat of trembling 
at the little accomplished, he makes his first report, 
and labors on. 

In due time, by the tri-weekly or bi-weekly mail, 
there comes to him a letter with the Society's imprint, 
— tlie first from New York. The twenty-five cents of 



THE WORKERS 69 

postage are paid, and the seal broken. There before 
him is his first missionary draft, — good, in the old 
times, as so much gold. It seems to him as almost 
sacred; for whence comes it? Of the West he has 
heard from his youth. He knows how the old folks 
at home, the fathers and the mothers, the brothers 
and the sisters, too, are praying and giving for the 
West ; and now he is here, an almoner of their boun- 
ties. Through him is the answer of their prayers to 
find a channel ; a new tie is felt between him and them. 

These are allies in the work, recognized now as 
never before. He must be faithful at his post, to the 
duties of which he commits himself with a new conse- 
cration. This is not all. That first letter is no mere 
off-hand business note, with the simple authority to 
draw so much money.. There is appended a message 
of cheer, of warm Christian greeting and encourage- 
ment. That message by the secretary's ow^n pen is as 
the hand-grasp of a friend. By it, henceforth, the 
youthful laborer feels that there are loving human 
sympathies with him, as he stands in this holy brother- 
hood of the mission work. He, as a home missionary, 
the secretaries, the patrons of the Society, those who 
give and pray, — all are as one, and in one work. 

Yes, ye donors, — ye men of wealth who have 
given your thousands, ye widows in Israel who have 
brought your two mites, all ye wdio have given or 
prayed, — in all the fruits of home missions at the 
West, you are sharers, 



70 THE IOWA BAND 

And you wlio with noble hearts have stood be- 
tween the g;ivers and the workers. — allow us who 
onee were youni;-. and now look baek upon our quar- 
ter century of labors, to give expression to the debt of 
gratitude we owe to you, and especially to the senior 
among you, then in the prime of his life, and still faith- 
ful at his post. Could his brief messages of cheer in 
missionary correspondence, scattered all over Iowa in 
her earlier days, be gathered together, what a volume 
the\- would make ! Could it but be seen what cour- 
age and energy they inspired, how rich a reward 
would there be in it for him ! 

W'e do not wonder that our wives have said, in 
passing through the commercial metropolis, that 
"they would rather see Dr. Badger's face than any- 
thing else in Xew "S^ork." Xor will we forget his 
noble colleague of earlier days, now gone to his re- 
ward. Go on, then, brethren at the Home Missionary 
Rooms, in giving words of cheer. You little know 
what power there is in them sometimes in the he'.rts 
of those at the outposts of home missionary toil. 

Pass on a few years in the young missionary's 
career, and look again. Like others, he finds it not 
good to be alone. He takes a wife, begins a home. 
Children are in the household. The actual necessa- 
ries of life draw hard upon a scanty income. Some- 
times the burdens of sickness or misfortune are added. 
In spite of clerical financiering, — and there is no bet- 
ter in the world, — things are going hard, 



THE WORKERS 7 1 

But something is rolled up to the door. It is a 
barrel or box ; nothing more, nothing less. Few 
things just now could be more ; for it is a "missionary 
box." Roll it in, and take off the cover. Out conies 
a dress or a cloak ; here a vest, and there a coat ; bun- 
dles of nice, warm flannel; little dresses, little stock- 
ings and tiny shoes, and toys even, for the youngest 
of the household ; an old hat and old bonnets some- 
times, — strange that such things should be sent ! 

A real relief is that box ; for almost everything is 
in it, — many comforts, and often some luxuries and 
adornments, that make the prairie home brighter and 
more cheerful for months. Winter may come now. 
The lean, lank wallet may swell out a little ; for less 
frequent now will be the drafts upon it. Real gala 
scenes sometimes attend the opening of these boxes, 
when the quiet study takes on the air of a dry-goods 
room or a clothing-store, when each is seeking to 
make out a suit for himself, and try it on. 

Willie, with the cap adjusted and jacket on, is tug- 
ging at the shoes, and Kate at the stockings, while 
the mother is busy with the shawl, gloves, etc. 

Of course, everything in the box does not fit at 
first, though afterwards generally made to do so ; and 
somewhat grotesque are the figures arrayed in each 
other's presence, to the merriment of all. 

But hush ! The articles are all taken off, folded 
up, and laid aside ; the little ones are made to under- 
ptapd that they are gifts frotn kifid friends far awa^ ; 



72 



77//: /()//'./ A\/.\7) 



ami then ihcrc is a kneeling down around that box, 
God is thanked, and blessings invoked on the donors.- 
Nor is a new eonseeration to the mission work for- 
gotten. 

\'es. \e tar-olY motliers, sisters, ye, too, are 
workers here. !>> tlie l)usy stitches tliat sewed these 
garments together, not only were xom- hearts knit 
more closely to the missionarx cause, but the hearts 
of the missionaries were boimd to it more closely as 
well. I'y these, in i)art, have the East and the West 
been drawn together in the fellowship of workers in 
a conunon Christian cause. The}' ha\e also ftumished 
a few threads, at least, in that web of national sym- 
path\- b\ which the I^ast and the West and the North 
and the Soiuh are indissoliibly one. 

At every step of oiu' young home missionary in his 
jM'ogressive work, he finds coworkers in it. He goes 
int(^ his little Sabl)ath-scho(^ls, ])resenting books and 
pictiu-es to a groii]) of children with bright eyes and 
happy faces. They are the gift of Eastern friends. 
As the little flock of his gathering are at the com- 
munion table, he sees the pitcher and tumbler giving 
place to a communion set. This comes, perhaps, from 
his own old home church. Tn due time, another point 
is gained ; and a happy day is it when a house of wor- 
ship is secured, — a sanctuary of God, a home for 
the church. Here, too, help has come from abroad. 
How large the circle, how numerous the company, 
engaged in this missionary work | 



THE WORKERS 73 

But we must not forget the missionary's helpers in 
the field. We refer now not to his brethren in the 
ministry merely, to whom he is daily growing more 
and more attached by the sympathies of a conmion 
cause and service, but to the faithful few he finds 
among his own little flock, and the choice spirits, also, 
in the flocks of his brethren. Rare men and women 
there were and are in these missionary churches. 
What good days those were of old, when the brethren 
all knew each other, and when the churches knew 
each other too, somewhat ; when we could travel over 
all the fields, and find a welcome everywhere from 
home to home ! With such coworkers has our home 
missionary labored on from youth to age. Laborers 
have increased ; churches have multiplied, and in 
them coworkers not a few. Again we say, in all that 
has been accomplished, "honor to whom honor ;" and, 
w^ith thanks to God for all, let all rejoice. 



CM AFTER XI 
RESULTS 

HOW genial and wide-spread, in the spring and 
summer time, are the infliienees of sun and 
showers! In autunm we gather in the harvests, and 
reckon up their sum. lUit in the muhitude of bushels 
of corn or wheat, more or less, have we a measure of 
what the sun and showers have done? What facts 
and figures are of use here? 

Like sun and showers are gospel influences in a 
state, as they flow along the channels of individual, 
domestic and social life. The effects produced are 
quite as much unseen as seen. They are such as no 
words can compass. Human language cannot set 
them forth. To attempt, therefore, to point out, in 
the form of definite and tangible results, wdiat home 
missions have done in Iowa may prejudice rather 
than promote our object. It were safer, perhaps, to 
content ourselves with the general impression given 
from the view we have taken of the workers and their 
field. 

Nevertheless, we will venture, as to a few points, 
upon a closer view^ ; yet so as by the facts and figures 
to be reminded constantlv quite as much of the things 
74 




Beginnings — Present edifice 
Edwards Congregational Church, Davenport 



RESULTS 75 

not told as of those that are. We will begin with a 
novel scene, — novel indeed for Iowa, and rare even 
for any state. 

On the 1 8th of November, 1868, in Muscatine, one 
of the busy cities on the banks of the Mississippi, there 
was a great gathering at the house of a pastor, Alden 
B. Robbins, one of the Band. Within that modest 
dwelling, children had grown up around him ; about 
him now were his flock, — parishioners, friends and 
neighbors, — the largest social gathering the city had 
ever seen. By his side stood one, not the first to 
share his joys and sorrows as wife and companion, 
but for many years his helpmeet indeed, the fruitage 
of whose exemplary life of prayerful, earnest toil was 
in the scene around her. With him, too, were gath- 
ered a few — here a brother, and there a sister — of 
those who, twenty-five years ago, were with him at 
the beginning of things. The silver wedding they 
called it, and fitly, of pastor and people. 

It was easy now to speak of incidents and dates, to 
call up facts and figures, to set the present member- 
ship of the church of two' hundred, and the total mem- 
bership from the beginning of three hundred and 
fifty-five, over against the little band of twenty-six 
who first composed it ; and to set in array the figures 
showing the twenty-four thousand dollars contrib- 
uted to benevolent purposes during the last twenty 
years. It was easy to contrast the present house of 
worship with the first oue built, — the little brick 



76 



THE IOWA n.lNP 



l)uilclins4- al the top of the hill, ainoni;- the stumps, in 
the erection of which, after pockets were empty, the 
brethren brought their bodies to the work, with hod in 
hand, carrying- brick and mortar. 

It was easy to go loack of this to the (.)ld court-house, 
where the meetings first were held, and then to fill up 
this space of twenty-five years with pleasing inci- 
dents of revival scenes recalled, and manifold changes 
wrought. Easy indeed was all this, and rich and rare 
was the lU^ok of Chronicles opened that night 1)\ the 
pastor among his people. 

l^)Ut all that was said, all that was thought or con- 
ceived of. by any or all, — what was it in comparison 
willi the true history of the twenty-five years there 
under review? To give that history, one must trace 
the workings of prayers and prayer-meetings, — even 
those little church prayer-meetings of the olden times 
there, held in the afternoon, because Deacon Lucas, 
(Mie of the three brethren who were to sustain them, 
lived five miles out in the country. He must tell the 
story of the sermons from week to week prayed over, 
studied and preached ; of the good seed sown, in what 
hearts it took root, and how it grew. He must tell 
how children grew up, were trained and moulded by 
church and Sabbath-school ; what souls were born 
into the kingdom of Christ in the progress of the 
years. He must relate the history of those souls in 
their Christian development in this world, and tell 
how spme w^ho have gone over the river were fash- 




iSq5 
First Church, Decorah 



RESULTS 77 

ioned and ripened for heaven. He must portray the 
days of anxiety and soHcitnde on the part of both 
pastor and people in days of weakness, when that 
church was among the Httle home missionary churches 
of Iowa. He must show what was the part of eacli 
and all the home mission workers, who, by their pray- 
ers, labors, gifts and sympathies, sustained it, till, 
by the blessing of God, its liberty and Christ-loving 
principles were triumphant, and it became a tower of 
strength among sister churches in the state. 

But, if such things as these are to be fully and truth- 
fully told, who is to be the chronicler? And yet 
nothing short of this, and more than this, would be 
a complete history. Over and above the few facts 
and figures which we can put down in connection 
with the history of any one church, as the results of 
home missions in Iowa, there are in the divine Mind 
and as eternity will reveal them, other results just as 
definite and tangible, greater, and more in number. 
To that silver-wedding scene of pastor and people, 
with all its hallowed associations and precious mem- 
ories, we point as one of our results. And as with 
this church, so with others scattered over the state. 
Not that each church is as strong as this ; a few are as 
strong or stronger; many are weaker. Not that 
every pastor can look back upon his quarter-century 
labors in the same field ; but wherever churches have 
been planted, and gospel ordinances maintained, a like 
process, as to its general features, has been going 017, 



78 THE louw BAxn 

W'c have now roaclicd a point wIutc fis^nrcs l)ei^in 
to be sig-nificant. When the pastor of whose silver wed- 
ding we have spoken l)egan to lal)or with his little 
home missionary ehnreh twenty-five years ago, and 
looked aronnd for his innnediate allies and cowork- 
ers, there were in the territorw of his denomination, 
seven ministers and sixteen chnrches, with an aggre- 
gate meml)er^^hil) <>f four hundred and twenty-two. 
Among them all there was the one house of worship,'' 
built and used expressly as sneh : now (1870), there 
are one hundred and eighty-one ministers and one 
lumdred and eighty-nine chnrches, with a member- 
ship of about ten thousand. 

These churches are well supplied, for a new country, 
with liouses of worshi]). some of which are among the 
tinest structures in the state. They arc located 
mainly in the principal centers of j^opulation and 
trade. — ])laces, in this resj^ect, like those in wdiich 
Paul first preached the gospel. They embrace, to say 
the least, their proportionate share of the command- 
ing forces of society. These churches, as a general 
thing, are alive and vigorous. 

The amount of money raised b\- them during the 
year ending June, 1869. for home purposes and 
benevolent objects abroad, was $136,405; and was 
equal to an average of sixteen dollars to every 
resident church member. Of these churches all 
])Ut four were planted by, and have been nurtured 

1* At Dubuque, 



RESULTS 



79 



llirough, the agency of the American Hume Mis- 
sionary Society. 

But let us not dwell too long among mere statistics. 
Keeping in mind the one hundred and eighty-nine 
churches now scattered over the state, as the fruits 
of, and the fruit-bearing vines planted by, the Home 
Missionary Society, let us indicate a few facts illus- 
trative of their significance and value. 

The local church is the laboring point in the king- 
dom of God. Where the local church is vigorous and 
active, it includes every form of wise Christian labor. 
Were the world to be converted by public gatherings 
in associations and conventions, by public councils 
and resolves, the work were easily done. But little 
is accomplished by these, useful as they are in their 
place, save as those who share in them go back to the 
home churches, where by prayer and by work the seed 
of the kingdom is to be sown among the people. 
Here, where the gospel is preached and its ordi- 
nances are maintained, where the light shines and 
the gospel leaven is at work in households, Sabbath- 
schools, congregations and society at large, are the 
working centers of Christianity. 

Here, too, are the laborers for Christ who are to 
go forth into other fields, bearing precious seed with 
them. From these Iowa churches such laborers have 
gone forth to the East and the West and the South 
and to the isles of the sea. Some of our missionaries 
abroad to-day were raised up in the bosom of these 



8o TUB IOWA BAND 

cluirchcs. and others arc i)rci)arini;' to folk)\v. For the 
promotion of Christ's kingdom in the huuh we have 
various organizations, — Bible societies, tract socie- 
ties, Sabbath-scliool societies, and tlie hke. lUit who 
does not know that the moment a home missionary 
enters a liehk lie is almost compelled b\' the force of 
circumstances to be a l^)ible agent, a tract agent, a 
Sabbath-school agent, and the agent and actt)r in 
every form of effort by which Christian work is to be 
done? 

We hear often and nuich as to its being the prov- 
ince of certain agencies to go in advance of the 
churches; but we never yet heard of a great battle 
won by skirmishers. All due honor to anybody and 
any agency that can do good in any measure and 
anywhere ; but let us not forget to recognize the wis- 
dom of the dixine plans in accordance with which 
everything effective in the kingdom of God must 
spring from and be nourished by ''the church of the 
living God. which is the pillar and ground of the 
truth." So shall we honor that Society, which, in 
the ])lanting of churches, in a sense absorl")s and 
carries in itself all Christian agencies. 

Tn estimating the influence of these churches in 
Iowa, we must not forget the revivals of religion in- 
cluded in their history. When God in various ways 
so wonderfully prepared this nation for the fearful 
struggle through which it has recently passed, by 
abundant harvests and general financial success, he 




t ■aL.kisl-i. 



RESULTS 8 I 

also scattered over the land numerous and powerful 
revivals of religion, through which, in part at least, 
a moral sentiment was created, adequate to cope with 
the powers of oppression, and to endure in the strug- 
gle. In our accounts of revivals, we say: so manv 
were converted, so many have joined the church ; as 
though this were the whole of it ; but here, as else- 
where, figures fail to tell the story. Follow those truly 
converted through their life-w^ork ; see in the elevation 
and development of Christian character, in the 
changes wrought in many homes, in society, in trades, 
professions, and the various callings of life, the influ- 
ence of genuine revivals of religion ; and then you 
may begin to estimate them. So we shall see how 
the Congregational churches of low^a, and those of 
all denominations, have been blessed, and made a 
blessing to the state, by the outpourings of God's 
reviving spirit. 

We should do injustice, in speaking of the results 
of home missions in Iowa, did we fail to mention that 
to these home mission churches is the country largely 
indebted for the stand taken and the services ren- 
dered by this new and rising state in the hour of our 
common national peril. What these were, we need 
not tell. They are knowai and read of all men. It 
might have been otherwise. 

Once, when, in the territorial legislature, the 
question of the admission or rejection of slavery was 
discussed, liberty barely triumphed. The portions of 



82 THE IOWA BAXn 

the- state earliest and most thickly settled received 
a population larj^ely imbued \vith Southern feeling 
and Southern sentiment. Any open opposition to hu- 
man bondage was decidedly unpopular. Our little 
churches found themselves amid uncongenial ele- 
ments. They were stigmatized as abolition churches. 
Their ministers were some of them threatened with 
violence: but they stood faithful, espousing from the 
hrst. and ever pleadii^g, the cause of human rights. 

A change was wrought, and Iowa is honored, the 
countr\- over, as true to the cause of freedom. To 
what extent this fact is due to the churches that 
gathered to their bosoms the descendants of the Pil- 
grims, who had made new homes on her soil, and 
lifted aloft the standard of a liberty-giving gospel, 
may never b'e (lehnitel\- known, for here, again, facts 
and figures fail us. lUu we kncjw, that when men 
were called for and armies were to be raised, one 
oiu of every four of tlieir ministers sent a son, nearly 
ever}- fourth of their adult male members enlisted, 
and, from their congregations, two thousand w^ent 
forth to the conflict. Of those who went from their 
communion tables, one third never returned. In the 
councils of the nation, too, was their influence felt. 
Of this we are assured, when, during the war, there 
stood among us one''' holding one of tlic highest 
positions of trust in the gift of the state, whose voice 
in both state and national councils had always been 

'=' Senator Grime?. 



RESULTS 82 

true and potent for liberty, who frankly affirmed, that, 
in respect to his political principles, he owed more to 
the body of men before him than to any other, and, 
at the same time, declared his political godfather to 
be him who was honored with the title of "Father" 
among us. 

We shall not be charged with undue presumption 
if we say a word here of the modifying influence ex- 
erted upon other denomination:?. As Congregation- 
alists, we are neither bigoted nor vain enough to feel 
that all excellence or wisdom is with us. We set up 
no claim to perfection. Our Western lives have 
taught us better. As we now see it, each denomina- 
tion of true believers has its own peculiar excellence, 
around which it grows, and from which it has what- 
ever is peculiar to its life. The several evangelical 
denominations, working side by side in this open field, 
inevitably afifect each other. They give to and borrow 
from each other. No one of them in the future is to 
be just what it would have been by itself. That 
future will not, cannot be just what any one of them 
alone would have made it. It is to be better than this, 
and each denomination is to be the better for the 
others. 

The modifying influence which the denominations 
mutually exert is too marked to escape the notice of 
any. Let it go on. We believe they are doing each 
other good. In this direction should the friends of 
missions look for a portion, at least, of the results of 



84 THE IOWA BAXn 

this labor; fur iIktc is no danger that the inlhieucc 
of the pohty and principles of the Congregational 
churches will be too strong amid the forming influ- 
ences of the West. There is need of them, and let the 
need be supplied. 

If anything more is needed in this chapter of re- 
sults to inspire the feeling that this work of home 
missions pays, we have only to remember that those 
churches are young and \ig(M-ous, and in a growing 
held. \\\ a few years, other churches than that al- 
ready referred to, other pastors, will be having their 
silver weddings; year by year, additional ones will be 
coming up to the i)()int of self-support, and pass on 
in their growth. Xew ones, betimes, will 1)C ,)lanted. 
In (lod's husl)an(h-\-. how Si)on is it per])etual sun- 
shine and shower, seed-time and harvest, ccjmminglcd ! 

The sheaves are in our arms, and the tender grain 
at the same time is springing at our feet. Centuries 
in (iod's seasons are but days, quarter-centuries but 
hours, r^or what we have already seen, let God be 
thanked. Tn following chaj^ters we shall meet with 
still further results, which, with those that have been 
named, are but the seeds of the future. 



CHAPTER XII 

THR IOWA ASSOCIATION 

IT is interesting to see with what boldness and in- 
dependence a f^w home missionaries, when they 
get together, will start and lay out plans in the West. 
It is all natural enough ; for a sense of the surround- 
ing growth and progress soon takes possession of the 
Western man. In all arrangements the future is cU- 
ticipated, and room for it carefully made. So it comes 
that some little church in an ordinary village bears 
the name of The First Congregational Church. One, 
indeed, sometimes almost smiles at the comprehensive 
and imposing titles with which some little organiza- 
tion is at the first burdened. But it should be remem- 
bered that the actors have an eye to things as they are 
to be, not as they are. If they start with large titles 
and plans, it is because they have confidence that 
tilings will soon grow up to them. 

Thus it was, that, in Denmark, as early as Nov. 6, 
1840, when, as yet, the state had hardly begun to be 
settled, the General Congregational Association of 
Iowa was organized, consisting of three churches, 
three ministers and one licentiate. It may not be 
amiss to give their names. The churches were those 

«5 



86 THE lOlVA BAND 

of Denmark, Fairfield aiul J)an\ille, with an aggre- 
gate membership of one hundred and tilty-four; the 
ministers were Asa Turner, J. A. Keed. Reuben Ciay- 
lord, and Charles JJurnham, lieentiate. I'he tirst two 
are still members of the Association, witnessing from 
year to year the fulfilment of their prophecy in the 
name they gave it ; the third, years ago, pitched his 
pioneer tent on the western bank of the Missouri, to 
be an actor in like prophecies and fulfilments in a still 
more western state. 

The Association thus formed held its meetings 
semi-annually, in spring and autumn, till October, 
1844. At this time, by its recommendation, minor 
associations were formed, to hold their meetings 
semi-annuall\- ; and its own meetings began to be 
held once a year. The minor associations now num- 
l)er twelve. To these belong ordained ministers, and 
churches represented by delegates. Ministers and 
churches of the minor bodies are acknow^ledged mem- 
bers of the General Association ; making this, to all 
intents and purposes, an annual gathering of the 
churches, for the exercise of no ecclesiastical rule, but^ 
as expressed in the second article of its constitution, 
"to promote intercourse and harmony among the 
ministers and churches in its connection, to dissemi- 
nate information relative to the state of religion, and 
enable its members to cooperate wnth one another, 
and with other ecclesiastical bodies, in advancing the 
cause of the Redeemer." 



THE lOlVA ASSOCIATION 87 

The spirit and proceedings of the annual meetings 
of this body, if faithfully given, would, of course, re- 
veal much of the inner workings and progress of mis- 
sionary and ministerial life in Iowa. Among the most 
pleasing recollections of the writer are those of a long 
series of these yearly gatherings; for, since 1844, it 
has been his privilege to be present, with a single 
exception, at all of them. This exception occurred 
when the shadow of the death-angel was hanging 
over his dwelling. The printed minutes of the Asso- 
ciation for the last twenty years are before him ; and 
from these, and the storehouse of his memory, let a 
few things be gathered. 

There meets us, at the outset, a little testimt)ny 
touching the soundness in doctrine of these churches 
and ministers, as found in the articles of faith adopted 
at the beginning, and ever since retained. In the early 
days, this soundness was not always conceded to us. 
Not only were our churches stigmatized in certain 
quarters as ''abolition," but heretical. They were de- 
nounced as unsound and irregular : an exchange of 
pulpits, even such pulpits as were found in school- 
houses and court-houses, was in some cases refused. 

"Congregationalism tends to Unitarianism" was the 
whisper industriously circulated. When this was 
nailed to the wall by an appeal to the true history of 
Congregationalism in New England, the shift was, 
''Congregationalism at the West is not what it is in 
the East. It is all right there, but out here it is 



88 THE IOWA BAND 

loose and irrcj^iilar." And, to our cliai;riii, this 
charge was partly l)elievetl, even at the luist. When 
we most needed confidence and sympathy, there was, 
in some quarters, somewhat of coldness and distrust. 
Amon<Tf some of the good Eastern fathers, to whom 
api)ertained. as they seemed to think, the steadving 
of the ark. was the feeling that hardly any good thing 
Cduld come frtmi the West. 

r.iit these things have passed away. ( )ur ])racticc 
.^ince has confirmed oiu" professions at the Inst. Wc 
have long been rcc()gni7A(l, fellowshipccl at the East, 
as soimd in the faith. I'.nt for the savor of boasting 
in it. we might ha\e nienti<nu'(| the present standing 
of Western ("ongregationalisni. and the j^resent fel- 
lowship between the luistern and the Western, as. in 
part, at least, among the results of Tow a home mis- 
sions. 

Tn view of what has now been said, it can easily be 
seen how correspondence with Eastern bodies by del- 
egates was appreciated. It is appreciated now; but 
in former days it had a more precious significance. 
At first we were few in num1)er, coming from fields 
new and widely separated. We made provision for 
a seat with us of delegates from foreign bodies, which 
were then mainly in the East. Isolated as we were, 
and in our peculiar circumstances, it was joyous to 
see each others' faces ; but for years no living man 
from the far East found us in our distant home. 

At length there came one D. Shepley — a godly 



THE IOWA ASSOCIATION 89 

man from a conference in Alaine. He was ac- 
({naintcd with some of our number in their youth, and, 
of course, had confidence in them. As he looked 
in upon us/' and was among Us in our prayers, our 
plans and our labors, his heart was moved. He took 
us to his bosom. He poured forth his prayers for us, 
and gave his counsels to us. He promised to take us 
back with him in his heart, and commend us to the 
confidence of the old home churches. That was 
Christian salutation and fellowship indeed ! In later 
years there would sometimes be one, sometimes two. 
Their names stand recorded upon oiu* minutes. 
Some of them have gone to the greater gathering 
above ; but their faces and their words are still fresh 
in our memories. Those were the days in which 
Christian greetings were precious. In these later 
times, in our printed lists, the names of delegates, 
secretaries, etc., are not a few, and our body some- 
times puts on quite an imposing aspect ; but those 
who come now are not to us exactly Avhat the first 
and the few in the early days were. 

As would be naturally supposed, the meetings of 
our Association have been characterized by a high 
degree of Christian love and harmony. Many things 
have combined to make them so. In earlier years, 
the majority of our number were old friends and 
classmates. They had happily coalesced with those 
on the field before them. Others coming, as happily 

2" The Asspcialion at Dubiique, 1S50, 



90 



THli IOWA BASD 



became one with thciii all. So it came to i)ass that 
there was a unity of sentiment, jjurpose and plan, un- 
usual in a Western body ; while the early friendships 
and affections formed, combined with the peculiar 
circumstances of a new country and new fields, gave 
to the meetings such zest and earnest Christian fel- 
lowships as would hardly be looked for. and would 
seem almost rude, in an Eastern body. 'The best of 
all," said a daughter of one of the missionaries, when 
old enough to attend one of these meetings, — "the 
best of all was to see them shake hands, the first night, 
after the sermon." If some of the older ministers 
should be called upon to give some of their happiest 
reminiscences, they would not forget their journeys 
of a hundred or two hundred miles to and from the 
Association, and of the pleasing incidents met with 
while in attendance, (^ne could tell you that he went 
on foot nearly two hundred miles, and felt paid for the 
journey. Others can remember long horseback rides, 
the fording of streams, and the rude yet genial enter- 
tainment at night in the log cabin by the way, whose 
latch-string was always out. When buggies were 
introduced, and bridges began to be built, it w^as an 
"age of progress." 

In the business of these meetings, seldom has there 
been a jar of angry debate or strife in all these twenty- 
five years. Differences of opinion have, of course, 
been expressed, but with Christian courtesy, and, in 
the decisions that have been reached, care has been 



THE IOWA ASSOCIATIOX 



91 



taken that the views of all should, as far as possible, 
be regarded. If it is good for "brethren to dwell to- 
gether in unity," in looking back through the long 
series of these annual meetings, there is little to 
regret, and much to be recalled with pleasure. 

They have been characterized by a spirit of prayer 
and devotion. For years, the first evening was spent 
in prayer for the presence of the Master. The need 
of his presence was peculiarly felt in the early days. 
Experience soon taught that a meeting of friendly 
greetings simply, without the presence and spirit of 
Christ, must be a failure. The practice of an opening 
sermon soon crowded out this hour of prayer on the 
first evening; but it found, perhaps, a better place. 
It was put, and has stood for years, in the middle of 
the forenoon of each day's session. There it takes 
the freshness of the morning. It is the hour, if any, 
that friends in the place can spare to pray with their 
guests. Though interrupting business, it steadies it 
for the day. It gives tone to the exercises of the 
whole meeting. It is the hour of all others in which 
all wish to be present. With no pride, but with joy, 
we see that this practice of putting an hour of prayer 
into the best part of the day has in some cases been 
copied by other religious bodies. It can be recom- 
mended to all. 

Among the best features of these annual gatherings 
has been the attendance of the wives. This was es- 
pecially true in the early tl|nes. And why not? As 



92 THE IO!l\i n.lXD 

llic hrutlKT i^'oi up liis horse and bui^'^y to start on 
his journey of a hunch-ed miles or so. along; which he 
would find other brethren to start with him, why 
should he g;o alone? \\ hy not take along his young- 
wife, and their one ehihl? Will not the journey, and 
the visits 1)\' the way. he just as refreshing to her as 
to him? Is there not a eonnnnnion of sisters as well 
as of brethren? The hallowed inlluences of these an- 
nual assenil)lies. — are they not as needful and useful 
for the wives as the husbands? At an early day, the 
general imderstanding was that the wives, too. should 
come. They did come, renewing old and forming 
new friendships, recounting the goodness of God in 
the past, and gathering new strength, hope, courage 
and consecration, that made them better hel])ers in 
the home nn'ssion work. 

If in this. too. other bodies have copied oiu" exam- 
])le. we think no harm has come of it. But times have 
changed. Family cares have increased. Modes of 
travel have changed, becoming more expeditious, but 
more costly, too. The field has enlarged. Not every 
mother and wife can go now. but the attendance of 
the sisters is still a feature of the Iowa Association, 
profitable alike to them, their companions and the 
churches. They have their separate meetings for 
prayer, while, in the regular hours of devotion, the 
volume of supplication is increased by the silent up- 
liftinp- of their hearts, with those of the brethren, to 
God. Bv the light of their cheerful faces, homes are 



THE IOWA ASSOCIATION 93 

opened tO' a more cordial hospitality, they helping in 
many ways to make the meeting of the Association a 
pleasure and a blessing in any place where it is held. 
Often, in some house or hall, are social fellowships 
added to the religious. Acquaintances and friend- 
ships are formed, ties of afifection are strengthened, 
and Christ's kingdom as well. 

Lest any one may think the picture is overdrawn 
by one who has for years been in and of them, let the 
testimony of a stranger, wdiose field of labor is at the 
East, but who came to us once bearing the greetings 
of his brethren, be given.^^ He says, "A few years 
ago, I had the privilege of attending the Annual 
Meeting of the General Association of Iowa. There 
are no more self-denying and faithful missionaries of 
Christ anywhere than were represented there, — the 
patriarchal 'Father Turner' at the head, apparently 
the youngest of them all. How those weather-beaten 
men and women talked and prayed ! How they laid 
hold of each other, and of any casual stranger who 
might be present, without waiting for formal intro- 
duction, when the moderator announced that the time 
had arrived for the miscellaneous shaking of the 
hands all around the house ! How enthusiastically 
they united business and enjoyment ! How tenderly 
they sang their parting hymn, standing around the 
table where together they had partaken of the sacra- 
mental emblems of a Saviour's love, breaking forth 

" E. K. Alden, Secretary A. B. C. F. M. __ 



94 



TULi IOWA BAXn 



spontaneously into soni^' during' tlic sacramental 
feast!" 'J'liose lixinns. those son<;s. we may add, are 
all the swecU'r because the xoiccsuf the wives are min- 
gled in them. 

But let no one think that these Associational meet- 
ings consist onl\ in the rhapsodies of Christian fellow 
slii]). connnunion and ])rayer. There is business, too. 
1 he printed minutes furnish abundant evidence that 
anotiier marked feature of the Iowa Association has 
been its prompt and decided acli(^n from time to time 
upon the vital cpiestions of the day. On all such sub- 
jects as the Sabbath, intemperance, slavery, the Mex- 
ican war. the l\el)ellion, etc., its testimony has been 
given with no uncertain sound. Resolutions upon 
resolutions on these topics might l)e copied, wTre it 
necessary. 

(^ut of the necessities that have arisen in the prac- 
tical working of things in this new field this Associa- 
tion has initiated policies, and recommended meas- 
ures, afterwards approved and adopted by the denom- 
ination throughout the land. More than one instance 
could be named ; but the most important is that of 
"church-building at the \Wst." No wonder, that, by 
those on the ground, the absolute necessity of houses 
of worship should early be felt, and that it should be 
thought that aid in building them, as well as in sus- 
taining the gospel ministry, was wise policy. 

As early as 1845, niore than twenty years ago. an 
able report was presented, recommending this policy 



THIi IOWA ASSOCIATION 



9i 



to our Eastern friends. The policy was resisted. No 
place was found iov the re[)ort ]:>)• an\- oi the leading- 
papers. Our friends were fixed in the position, ''If 
we help sustain your ministers, you must build your 
own churches." '' Six years later, another report was 
made, drawn by the same hand," reaf^rming the old 
positions, with additional facts. This found a hear- 
ing. Other testimony, from other cjuarters, was of 
course given. Soon after came the Albany Conven- 
tion, and then light began to dawn. Before the Al- 
bany fund, however, we had already our Iowa plan, 
and an Iowa fund in progress. Now the Congrega- 
tional Union'^ has this as its special work. 

No thanks in all this to us, and no cause for boast- 
ing. We only see in it that God, by the force of cir- 
cumstances, and the necessities developed by his 
providence, was teaching his people. If w^e do not, 
in some respects, have better plans and better 
churches in these Western fields than are found else- 
where, then woe be to us ; for in that case we must 
be dull scholars indeed. 

But we will not dwell longer on these pleasing 
recollections of our Associational meetings. The 
plans of those first three ministers were not too large, 
nor were their expectations visionary. They believed 
that there would be a General Congregational Asso- 
ciation of Iowa. As a realization of their faith, we 

" Note No. 10. 
•^ O. Emerson. 
2* Now tile ConsreRational Church Building Society. 



96 Till'. IOWA />'./.\7) 

liaxc a 1)()(1\. \\c may iiuuk'sllx sii_i;^\st. highly rc- 
siicciahlc as to ninnhcrs and lalciU, and characlcrizcd. 
wo trust, by a goodly measure of Cliristian zeal and 
devotion, \vh(^se opinions and recommendations are 
of weii^iu amonj^- its churches, and respected in the 
land. It is already so large as to suggest the coming 
necessity of a division. But ''not till we are dead," 
say some of ilic oldest members; "we don't wisli to 
see it." How long some of us are to labor, and what 
the necessities of the future are to be, God only knows. 
To him let there be given i)raise for the jnast. and in 
him let there \)v trust for tlu' time to iN)me. 



CHAPTER XIII 

THE IOWA ASSOCIATION. WHAT IS IT NOW? 

IT is greatly enlarged, of course. We who are now 
livnig do not wonder at it. It is but a part of the 
wonderful growth which has been going on in all 
things about us, — a growth far beyond the expecta- 
tions of those who were at the beginning of things 
fifty years ago, in small communities that had not felt 
or even dreamed of the impulse that was to come to 
a new state from railroads, the telegraph, telephones, 
and al. the appliances of mechanical skill and geniu>. 
to develop the unknown resources of the land they 
were possessing. 

They doubtless had faith in the future, but how 
short of the realities must their boldest imaginings 
have been ! As an illustration of this, space is here 
given for an extract from a letter written by one of 
those workers in the early days. The letter by its date 
suggests to us the author. It is our Brother Lane, of 
course, who, with his good wife, had begun housekeep- 
ing with dry-goods boxes for chairs and tables, — and 
but a little over six months after he entered upon his 
work has been preaching where, and to whom? No 
church building, no audience but a mere handful. It 



98 77//: loir.i n.ixn 

is 1S44: ilic ( icncral Association but a year or two old ; 
oi minor associations, hut two, one for northern, the 
other for southern Iowa; the Northern just [orniech 
his own church of a dozen or so not yet a niemhcr of 
any. l'erha])s. as he sits down to write, it is Monday 
niornino;. and he has l)ecn thinkins^ of his Sabbath 
work and the small bei::innin5;s aroimd him. Op- 
pressed? Disconrai^^ed? just a little, for a moment, 
it may be. And yet it is not like him. Possibl\ a ma]) 
is before him of Iowa as it then was. If so. his e\e 
rests upon such places as Tipton. lUooniino^ton, and 
such counties as Jones. Clayton, etc., where the breth- 
ren w ere. and all of them, like himself, in small things. 
\'es, it is just ])ossible that for his own cheer and 
coiu-ao^e he sets himself to thinkinLi" what in the bless- 
ing;- of God there mi^ht be in the future, and so h 
would ])en a few lines for himself and the brother to 
whom he wrote. At any rate he did write as follows: 

KeosaiKiua, \'an Burcn Co.. July 31. 1844. 
We shall he continually sending for new volunteers from 
Eastern theological seminaries to take possession of the new- 
counties in the New Purchase, and the occasional parishes, 
which by the blessing of God, we hope to make here in the 
vicinity about us. Do not think, my dear brother, that I am 
scheming, that we are going to make parishes here, as easily 
as a farmer will enclose forty acres of land, and then put min- 
isters into them as readily as the farmer coukl put tenants upon 
his enclosed fields. We shall do no such thing. We are hop- 
ing, however that the Great Head of the Church will do this 
work for us. I believe the time is not far distant, when this 
work will be done. Sometimes I try and wrap myself up in the 
future, and by contemplating w^hat will be, take courage to labor 
for the ti)nc being. Now I am sitting in some well furnished. 



e 



Tilll IOWA ASSOCIATIOX. WHAT IS IT XOJr/ 



99 



spacious church ; a large congregation is convened to listen to 
the reports from various churclies ; one numbers 200 members, 
another 150, others 140, 100. 59. 66, 300, 317. etc. Pastors have 
been settled fifteen, twenty, and thirty years, revival has suc- 
ceeded revival, and all is indicative of prosperity within the 
bounds of the association assembled. Delegates from sister as- 
sociations are there. Brother Salter (locks whitened with 
age) addresses the audience, representing Zion's prosperity in 
northern Iowa. Brother Turner ("leaning upon the top of his 
staff") gives an account of what God has done for his people 
in Jones County. Brother Hill, from Clayton, although bald- 
headed, yet retaining nearly all the physical vigor of youth, 
makes a speech. Brother Alden represents Tipton; Brother 
Robbins. Bloomington. The ten are there and the voice of 
each is heard. Then, in view of the past, we will exclaim 
'Bless the Lord, O our souls, and all within us bless his holy 
name.' 

This association adjourns on Friday, Oct. 12, 1890. Shall 
we live to see this? No matter whether we do or not, some- 
thing similar to that now described will exist in tte churches 
in Iowa, without doubt. If we see it not in this world, God 
grant that we may look down from heaven and see it I 

Written in 1844, the imagined meeting of the As- 
sociation was placed in 1890. ''Shall we see it?" was 
the question. No, not all were permitted to see it, he 
himself among the number. But if permitted from 
heaven to look down, what did he see in 1890? He 
beheld the General Association holding its semi-cen- 
tennial at Des Moines, a point at the time of his writ- 
ing so far west in the Indian country as to be known 
only as "Racoon Forks," where there was a fort. 
"A spacious church?" Yes, large enough to accom- 
modate an assemblage not simply from the old Black 
Hawk Purchase with the New Purchase just added, 
but from over the whole state. More pastors, more 
churches and larger ones than he had dared to dream 



lOO 



riui IOWA BAsn 



of; a lime when in sermon and papers were rehearsed 
flftv vears ut Congregational work in a new and rising 
Connnonwealth. Could he have been there he with 
reason doubtless would have said, "Bless the Lord, 
O my soul!" And now it is 1901. To 1890 eleven 
vears have been added. The three churches, little at 
first, are over three hundred now, with a membership 
of over 30,000. absentees not reckoned. To the three 
pastors with one licentiate then, there have l)een added 
and now stands a long, long list. They are held as yet 
in one body, for one annual gathering from year to 
vear. And what is the Association now compared 
with what it was years ago? In every respect not 
exactlv the same. This in the nature of the case could 
nut l)c. 

With the increase of wealth and material ])r()sperit\' 
great clianges have come. The cabins with their 
latch-strings out have gone, giving place to dwellings 
of comfort, to residences palatial, some of them, where 
for a stranger to look for hospitality would be intru- 
sion. Telegraphs, telephones and the railroads are 
here changing almost completely our modes of busi- 
ness and travel. No longer now at Association time, 
as to an appointed Mecca, do the brethren pursue 
their journeys on horseback or in buggies, fording 
streams, toiling over wide prairies with eager expec- 
tations of hearty greetings awaiting them. No longer, 
with here and there an exception, is it possible for 
brethren to be bound together by the peculiar ties of 



THIL lOirA ASSOCIATIOX. WHAT IS IT NOWf ibl 

pioneer experiences. Xo, the frontier times are gone. 
There are other tilings that have gone. It was once 
the custom to exchange delegates with corresponding 
bodies. This no longer obtains. Gone, too, are the 
good old Sabbaths together. In former times of prim- 
itive modes of travel, many could not attend the 
Association meetings without being from home two 
preaching days, so, for their accommodation, and what 
proved to be of benefit to all, the meetings were put 
towards the end of the week and continued over the 
Sabbath following. The Sabbath dawn found business 
transacted and brought a day of quiet rest and worship 
together. Precious days ! But this, too, has changed, 
so easy is it now by railroad travel to come and go in 
midweek. 

Other sHght changes there have been, but on the 
whole the old, the essential characteristics are the 
same. The atmosphere of free good-fellowship yet 
remains ; the spirit of Christian courtesy and harmony 
yet prevails. The ministers of Iowa as a rule love 
their Iowa work. The churches, as they send up their 
delegates and other members to the annual assemblies 
are more and more interested in them. The last 
gathering was at a point on the banks of the great 
river. A church not of the largest was represented by 
nearly twenty of its members, and some were there, 
both ministers and laymen, whose homes were over 
two hundred miles away. The old spirit of devotion 
has by no means died out. The daily prayer-meeting 



I02 THE IOWA n.lXD 

still slaiuls where, years ai^o. in the constitution, it 
was put. in the niicUlle ot the tureno(,)n. the best hour 
of the (la\'. its exercises of all others the best attended. 
At the close of each nieetiniLi". with tuiited hands and 
hearts, the old h\nui is sun;.;'. "M\ days are g'lidinjT^ 
swiftl}- by." which for years has been a reminder of 
tliose who have passed to the Shinino- Shore, and an 
inspiration for better work "while the da\s are i;-oint;-." 
Yes. these i^food Association meetings. There is a pow- 
er in them when tilled with the ])resence of the Mas- 
ter. The fellowships eui^ender streng-th for the year 
to ct>me. ( )n many a field where otherwise there 
mii.^]it be a lonely work, the SNinpathetic chord of fel- 
lowshij) is felt. The writer must here be allowed 
again otit-of his own experience to testify to their 
value. As thirty-one \ears ago. in 1870. so now^ in 
1901. he can sa\- that beginning in 1S44 it has been his 
privilege, with one exception, to be ])rescnt at them all ; 
a privilege, indeed, in view of benefits received and 
pleasing memories recorded. Let God be thanked. 
To every young minister he would say. Be an Associa- 
tion man. Cultivate acquaintance and cooperation 
with the brethren. Lead your church along the same 
lines. Church autonomy within its limits is good, but 
there is a fellowship of brethren and churches not to 
be forgotten. 

The few^ illustrations given of church buildings that 
were, and that no\v are, will suggest in material 
things, at least, the progress made. 



CHAPTER XIV 




10 IV A COLLEGE 



THE home missionary is not only bold in his plans, 
but it is curious to see how, as by instinct, his 
plans run in certain directions. Given a Puritan de- 
scent, a Yankee training and a sanctified culture in 
New England institutions, and one may know before- 
hand, as to certain things, at least, what he will be 
doing when first put into a new and Western field. 

"If each one of us can only plant one good permanent 
church, and all together build a college, what a work 
that would be !" So said one of the Band, as they 
were contemplating their Western work. So, too, 
those already in the field had been thinking : for, at 
the close of one of the first meetings held at Den- 
mark after the arrival of the Band, they were invited 
io3 



I04 Till- loiwi H.ixn 

to tarry a tew iiioinonts to li>un lo plans for loiuul- 
ing- a college. A litllc surprised were lliey. and not 
a little gratitied. 

Here was the beginning of Iowa College. Thus 
far back in home missions in Iowa must we go for its 
inception." This mere seed, as it germinates, takes 
niot. springs up and grows, will develop still further 
workers, workings and results. Like man\- another 
W estern college that is now a power and glory in the 
land, it took its start out of prayer and toil in the days 
of pioneer missionary labor. It strikes its roots back 
into the faith and self-denial of the early churches, 
taught by the ministers to water it with their ])rayers 
and their gifts; of its early teachers and professors, 
t<M). who conse!Ued to nuMure it as a part of mission 
work, and one involving in those days no less of self- 
denial and toil than any other. These are features in 
this institution, which, thank God, have not yet died 
out. To present a true view of this college, especially 
of its earlier history, will help to bind it anew to the 
aftections of its friends and may recommend it to the 
confidence of those whom God has enabled, and who 
love, to endow such institutions. It may inspire the 
feeling that an institution so planted and nurtured 
must have the blessing of the Lord within it. 

But to draw the picture with each color and shad- 
ing true to facts and experience is another of those 
things that by no human possibility can ever be done. 

-•" Xute Xo. II. 



lOJVA COLLEGE 1 05 

From recollection and records a few things only can 
be given. After the meeting alluded to, nothing was 
done till the following spring. 

March 12, 1844, a meeting of ministers and others 
"interested in founding a college" w^as held at Den- 
mark, of course, for this was at that day the center of 
all things. The plan proposed and approved w^as to 
find a tract of land subject to entry, in some good loca- 
tion, obtain funds for its purchase, and then sell it out 
in parcels at an advanced price to settlers favorable 
to the object ; thus securing an endowment for the 
institution and a community in which it might pros- 
per. A suitable location, therefore, was the first ob- 
ject. A committee'*' of exploration was appointed, with 
power, when ready to report, to call another meeting. 
The call was issued for April 16, 1844, and embraced 
the Congregational and New School Presbyterian 
ministers in the territory, the most of whom were in 
attendance. So favorable was the report of the com- 
mittee, and so unanimously were all previous plans 
approved, that the brethren resolved themselves at 
once into an association, under the title of 'Towa 
College Association," with suitable rules and regula- 
tions, and appointed Asa Turner as agent to go im- 
mediately to the East to obtain the necessary funds 
with which to pay for the land, agreeing by formal 
resolution to defray his expenses from their own 
scanty resources. 

"" I. A. Reed, cliairman. 



lo6 THE IOWA BAXD 

It woiikl not be of interest to mention in detail the 
precise date and eircnnistanees of eaeh successive 
meeting' in respect to tlie enterprise thus started. It 
i.s sufficient to sa\ thai this Cohes^e Association took 
charge of it, until, in due time, it was committed to 
a board of Trustees empowered to fill its own vacan- 
cies, and add to its own ninnl)er. The two denomi- 
nations named were represented in due {proportion in 
this board, and ct>ntinued to be so represented, until, 
in process oi time, from c\'uises affecting- their rela- 
tions to each other in the count r\ at larL^e. the prac- 
tical interest of the IVesbyterian brethren in the in- 
stitution diminisiied, and they gradually withdrew 
from its councils. Thus the college came to be ex- 
clusively, as in point of interest and su]:)i)ort it mainly 
had ])een from the first, the foster-child of the Con- 
mreiiationalists ; and as such its histor\- will be {.^iven. 

1 he agent, of whose appointment we have spoken, 
repaired at once to the East, going directly to Bos- 
ton. But he was not to succeed. The College So- 
ciety, so called for the sake of brevity, had just been 
formed, with a view to systematizing and regulating 
appeals at the East in behalf of Western colleges. 

Its friends, at a called meeting," disapproved of the 
plans of the agent, and recommended that a good 
location should be first secured, the best for a college, 
irrespective of other considerations ; that donations 
should be called for outright, a beginning be made, 

-■ For minutes of that meeting see Appendix II. 



lOJVA COLLEGE 107 

and that the institution trust to the patronage of the 
Society and of friends whose Hberal endowments 
could eventually be secured. It seemed like losing 
a grand opportunity, but the agent returned. The 
Western brethren, with some reluctance, yet cordially, 
yielded to the judgment of their Eastern friends, 
some of whom had had experience in the West. 

What the result would have been had their own plans 
been carried out, it is impossible, of course, to tell ; 
but, as they look now at one of the most flourishing 
inland towns of the state, upon one of our principal 
railroads, with its water-power, its timber, and its 
prairie, filled and surrounded by an enterprising popu- 
lation, right where it was proposed to purchase the 
college lands, they are wont to say to each other, 
"That is where we talked of starting our college ; 
that is where, with a few dollars, we might once have 
started and endowed it.'^ What would have been the 
outcome of a beginning there on the plan proposed, 
we do not know. There might have been success; 
there might have been failure. One thing is certain ; 
the plan actually adopted involved beginning at the 
very lowest round of the ladder, whence every step 
upward was of necessity by the hardest." 

The thing was first to get a location — a location 
for a college, without a dime besides, a cent even, or 
a promise, save as there was faith in prayer and toil. 
In a year or two, the minds of all were agreed upon 

28 Independence, Buchanan Co. 



loS 77//: /()//•./ n.lXf) 

a jioim. which, al ihal chi\, fur case ol access and 
hcauly of siliialiuii. sloud forlh without a rival. In 
|N4() it was voted to locate at I )aven])ori, ■'i)roviiled 
the citi/.ens woidd raise fourteen hundred dollars, and 
provide ccrlain specified grounds for a location." 
Each individual, moreover, was to raise, if possible, 
one hundred dollars among his Eastern friends, or 
elsewhere. A hoard of trustees was at this time 
elected. 

This was the hcLiinninq- of work, and nuicli hard 
work, with slow progress. The next >ear, m 1847, 
it was fotnid that the citizens of Davenport had 
pledged thirteen hundred and sixty-two dollars and 
thirteen lots: otherwise little had heen acconi])lishe(l. 
The ])roi)ose(l location was seciu-ed. and instructions 
gi\en "to plan and erect a building, which shall be 
a i)ernianent c 'liege bin'lding, in good taste, and 
which, when enclosed, shall not exceed in cost the 
sum of two thousand dollars." 

One may smile at the idea of a ])ermanent college 
building in good taste, w ithin the cost, when enclosed, 
of two thousand dollars : but that was a day of small 
things: and where even this amount was to come 
from, none coidd tell. The trustees and members of 
the College Association pledged themselves to make 
up any deficiency there might be, not over six hun- 
dred dollars, — a resolution to this effect having been 
unanimously adopted, and signed by each one pres- 
ent. Such was the care taken that all liabilities 




Preserved Wood Carter, 
First large Donor 



Prof. Erastus Ripley, 
First Principal and Professor 




Prof. Leonard Fletcher Parker, 
Professor since 1856 

Iowa College Pioneer Helpers 



Josiah r>u-.liin 11 ( .1 nine' 
FoiuuIlt of (irinnell 



lOlVA COLLEGE 109 

should be seasonably provided for, and no debts in- 
curred. The building was erected, and the bills paid. 

In Xovember, 1848, a school was opened, under 
the charge of the Rev. E. Ripley, elected as profess- 
or of languages, with a salary of five hundred dollars 
a year. There were appropriate opening exercises, 
including an address and dedicatory prayer. It was 
a windy, wintry day. Not many were present, but a 
few were there, with hearts full of gratitude to God 
for all success hitherto in the enterprise wherein by 
faith was seen a college for Iowa. As the brethren 
met together in their homes, as they came to their an- 
nual association, they began to say "our college." 
They had need to say it; for contingent expenses, 
salary, etc., far exceeded the amounts received for 
tuition. Besides, improvements must be made, and 
more teachers employed. 

Here began the years of anxiety and labor — 
teachers toiling, trustees planning, and the executive 
committee trying to execute, meeting often, with 
much to be done, but never able to do it. When 
they could do nothing else, they could at least pray. 
So they worked and prayed and worked. Every year, 
as the churches came together in their annual associ- 
ation, the story of the college was told, its wants re- 
hearsed, and their pray'ers and alms besought. This 
was not without response."" 

In 1849 there were subscribed for it four hundred 

2" Note 12. 



no iiii- IOWA H.ixn 

aiul fc>rty-l\V() dollars and sixty-tivo cents — all bnt 
four oi llic subscribers beini^ ministers; and the min- 
utes oi that \ear show the whole number of ministers 
to have been twenty-one. In 1S50, at the meeting 
of the associatit)n in l)ubui|ue. there were reported, 
besides the prej)aratory department, twenty-eight 
students in Latin, eight in (Ireek. There, too, it was 
told how the baptism of the Spirit had been sent 
down upon the infant collrge as the seal of (lod's ap- 
pro\al. Tln're. also, was reported the hrst noonday 
l)rayer-meeting of the students — a meeting, which, 
with little interruiUion. has been kej)t up to this day, 
while many succeeding re\-i\-als ha\'e ])cvu enjoyed. 
As the old tale of ])ecuniary embarrassment was there 
told, hearts were opened for relief, and four hundred 
and fifty dollars were pledged. In the minutes of that 
meeting it stands recorded that "the wives, also, of 
the ministers, anxious to share in the enterprise of 
founding this college, resolved to raise a hundred 
dollars out of their own resources; and seventy dol- 
lars were subscribed by fourteen persons who were 
present." "It was a great sum then," said one of 
them, years afterwards; "it was a great sum then, five 
dollars, but T managed to pay it." 

So it went on for years afterwards. Tn i(S52 a hun- 
dred and fift\-three dollars were raised; in 1853. 
seven hundred and eleven dollars. Tn this year came 
the first decided help from abroad — the donation 
from Deacon V, \Y. Carter of Watcrburv. Connecti- 



lOll'A COLLEGE m 

cut, of five thousand and eighty dollars. It seemed a 
great sum. The interest of this, and the aid which 
the College Society began to give, together with the 
avails of our own efforts, would have given relief, 
only that increasing wants kept pace with increasing 
means.'" 

New professorships were established from time to 
time, till, in 1855, there were four professors.'' By 
this time the original site had been abandoned, a 
new one of ten acres secured, and an elegant stone 
building, with a boarding-house, erected upon it. 
This change was caused by the persistence of the city 
authorities of Davenport in thrusting a street through 
the grounds first occupied. The second site chosen 
was divided and injured in the same way. About this 
time the institution was unfortunate in trusts reposed 
in one of its officers. As the state settled up, there 
were prejudices in the interior against a river loca- 
tion for an institution of learning; and the feeling be- 
gan to prevail that, among the people of the place, 
it did not have so congenial a home as it ought. 

As the result of these combined circumstances, it 
was decided, in 1858, to sell out, and seek for a new 
site. God, in his providence, had one in preparation. 
A few years previous, in the heart of the state, a 
colony had settled with the express purpose of es- 
tablishing, and at the outset had made provision for, 

•■'" Note 13. 
?i Note 14, 



112 THE I QUA BAND 

an inslilution of Icarniiii;-. Here a school had already 
been coiiiinenced. After ilue thought and much 
prayer, it was concluded, with the general approval 
o\ all i)arties interested, that the fountain opened by 
the I'^ather of Waters should be united with the rill 
of the ])rairies. Accordingly, from 1859, Grinnell. 
bnva. has been the seat of Iowa College. 

We will not follow its history in detail for the next 
ten \ ears. There are two noble college buildings in 
an area of twenty-two acres. t(^ which the verdure 
of growing shade-trees adds increasing beauty from 
year to year, 'flie location is on the border of a vil- 
lage whose i^ride is the college. The intelligence, 
morality and affectionate good will of the ])e()])le 
make it a fit i)lace for the education of the sons and 
daughters of Iowa." The names of two hundred and 
n'net\- of them are found enroled as members of the 
institution during the past year, more than half of 
whom are in the collegiate and preparatory depart- 
ments. 

There are eight instructors — the president, four 
professors, a principal of the preparatory department, 
a principal of the ladies' department, and one tutor. 
In the library there are over four thousand volumes, 
besides the smaller libraries of the literary societies 
of the college. The apparatus, though far from what 
it should be, is yet sufficient to illustrate the princi- 
ples of natural philosophy, chemistry and astronomy ; 

32 In it there has never been a saloon, and, if title deeds can prevent, ther^ 
never can be, 




^sr^^r-^iquir- 




First College Building at Davenport 

Second College Building at Davenport 

Iowa College, Grinnell, before the Cyclone in 1SS2 

Beginnings of Iowa College 



IOWA COLLEGE 113 

while admirable collections have already been made 
in mineralogy, zoology, botany, etc., which are ar- 
ranged in a cabinet of rare attraction and taste. On 
the walls of the college library are the portraits of 
Carter and Williston, as among the chief donors to 
the college. The names of Grimes, Ames, Dodge, 
Richards, Merrill, Butler and Barstow may be fitly 
recorded here, as of those who have largely contrib- 
uted to its funds ; and perhaps others not known to 
the writer are equally deserving of mention. 

The college property, in the aggregate, now 
amounts to one hundred and sixty thousand dollars, 
more than half of which is productive. The list of 
graduates is not long ; but they are already scattered 
over the land, occupying honorable positions in the 
various professions. The resources of the institution 
are as yet by no means ample. Its facilities must 
increase from year to year, to meet the growing de- 
mands upon it ; but beholding it now, and calling to 
mind how hard it was to get together the two thou- 
sand dollars for the first humble building, remember- 
ing how the seed was sown, and by the nurture of 
what prayer and toil it has grown, the contrast is in- 
deed pleasing. Grateful always is the memory of la- 
bors past, where results in the form of abounding 
fruits are seen. 

Before closing this pleasing review, another refer- 
ence may not be amiss to him in whose first endow- 
ment, in part, of the Carter professorship there was 



114 THE IOWA BAXn 

such courage and chcor. It was the i)loasing privi- 
lege of the writer to receive a portion of that gift at 
his own hands, and in his own home. He was a plain 
man, and his home of the olden stamp, somewhat old- 
fashioned in its air, but ample in comfort, without ex- 
travagance or display. Riding about the village one 
afternoon, in the old family carriage, he reined Uj) his 
horse where a townsman was building a residence of 
great elegance and cost. Surveying it for a moment, 
'There," said he, "I might take my money, and build 
me a house just like that ; but then, if I should, I 
sh(nil(l n(^t have it to give to Iowa College." It 
showed that he liad considered the question, and 
made his choice. Who will say, as he looks at Iowa 
College to-day, and thinks of him as having passed 
from earth, that the choice was not a good one? 

O yc whom God has blessed with fortunes that are 
amj')le. now is the time of your choosing. If you w^ish 
tc) turn a portion of your means into some permanent, 
mighty power, that shall work for Christ in this and 
the ages to come, how more surely or better can you 
do it than to help to build in this Western land some 
Christian college? The tongues of missionaries and 
pastors sooner or later shall be silent in death ; 
teachers change : but endowments in these Christian 
colleges will work on. work ever. 




Blair Hall 

Goodnow Hall (Library) 

Rand Gymnasium for Women 

Iowa College Buildings 



Chicago Hall 



CHAPTER XV 

COLLEGE HISTORY CONTINUED. ITS GRINNELL 
PERIOD 

IN the preceding chapter there was but a sHght 
reference to the first years of the college at Grin- 
nell. It will be necessary, therefore, at the com- 
mencement of this to speak of these more at length. 
Its work at Davenport was closed, as we have seen, 
in 1858. For about a year there was a state of 
transition. What did it take from its old, and what 
leceive at its new location? As to its taking, in 
material things there was but little. Started as it 
was at so early a period, before a building for the 
common schools had been erected in the place, eleven 
years before any other college was more than thought 
of in the state, much could not be expected. There 
were no buildings, of course ; no teachers, for they 
had resigned when instruction ceased. The books 
gathered for a library were but few. Its appa- 
ratus, philosophical, chemical, etc., was but scanty. 
As for funds, after payment of debts, there were left 
about $9000. But it went with a good history. In 
those ten years at Davenport good work had been 
done. There had been ten graduates who, with other 

"5 



Il6 THE IOWA BAND 

students, had been trained by its four professors of 
ability and titness for their position. The majority of 
those ten graduates are stiU Hving-. one of whom took 
an active part in the forming of an Ahmmi Associa- 
tion recently organized on the. Pacific shore. Besides 
its character and history it took its board of trustees. 
There went with it. too. the loyalty of ministers and 
churches whose hearts were in it, and back of it. As 
it went, it found a young conmuniit\- of intelligence 
and cntluisiasni for education, witli open arms to re- 
ceive it. They had already a high school of thirty- 
five scholars in progress, with studies shaped for a 
higher institution in view. There was a parcel of land 
set apart for it. suitable for a college campus, and a 
building thereon in process of erection. These, with 
money subscriptions, they transferred to the college, 
the estimated value of the property being at the time 
$36,000. vSuch was its new home. 

Like a healthy plant transferred to a better soil, it 
at once took root and commenced to grow^ In 1861 
there was a freshman class of twelve. But then the 
war came. Soon all but two were in the field. Other 
young men came, but their minds turned feebly to 
Latin and Greek, while their thoughts were following 
those who had enlisted in their country's cause. 
Sometimes, w^hen the news was sad, the recitation 
room even had no place for the lesson either for stu- 
dent or teacher, but gave w^ay to a discussion of the 
situation, its responsibilities and demands. One after 



COLLEGE HISTORY CONTINUED 117 

another was missing. Where gone? To the war. As 
the thickening conflict was prolonged and the call for 
men became more urgent, twenty-six enlisted at one 
time,"" their teacher at the head. The time came when 
all the male students of military age were bearing 
arms. They were found in fifteen different Iowa regi- 
ments and in some of other states. Their record as 
soldiers, and a tablet hanging inside the chapel door 
on which is inscribed the names of eleven that never 
returned, are witness to noble service rendered. 

But in due time the war was over and college work 
was resumed. New students came and new professors 
were added. In 1865 there was the usual number of 
college classes, the seniors to graduate numbering fif- 
teen. On their commencement day a new presence 
that had corne to the college stood before them, that 
of its first president, George Frederick Magoun. Take 
it all In all, h^ was a rare man for the position. "A su- 
perb leader," says one f* "a man of the largest mould, 
with the culture of Bowdoin and Andover broadened 
by contact with the world." 

The college strengthened and grew. Friendly do- 
nors appeared at home and abroad. Able professors 
were added ; the roll of students enlarged. Their rec- 
ord showed the institution one for sound learning and 

^^ The teacher referred to is Prof. L. F. Parker. He left behind what was 
more like a female seminary than a college, the special burden of which, added 
to that of domestic duties, came upon his noble wife, and was heroically borne- 

34 J.Irving Manett, Prof, of Greek in Brown University, Providence, R. I. 
In New England Magazine for June iS, iSqS. 



ii8 



nil- J(ur.i n.i\P 



o-ood characlcr. \ci n IkuI ils inisloriunes. In 1871 
its first building- at Grinncll, started for the Gruinell 
Univcrsitv. was destroyed l^y fire. In 1882 came the 
cyclone In ils path ..f destruction, in which, as in a 
twinklino-, hniucs. like paper houses, were scattered 
in fragments, leavin- thirty-six of their inmates kdled 
and a hundred uthers niainied. the collc.i;e campus, 
too, was struck, its trees nianolcd, its l.uildinos le-ft ni 
ruins. The stonn was ..ver. hut the niornino- light re- 
veale.l a scene ..I .lesolali.m. It was the 17th of June, 
and all things were shaping fnr another graduation 
day. All eves were n..w turned t.. what the leader 
should sav.' Now was the time for what there was in 
him t.» show itself. "Will you have connnencement 
now-'" was the (luestion put. "Yes,'" came the full- 
t,,ned replv. -Ves, we will go right on." Xobly was 
he supported hv the faculty, an.l as nobly by the 
students, as, aher helping as best they could to care 
for the wounde.l and the dying, they rallied for com- 
mencement (lav. Xor, as the college year came 
around, did they forget to return. It was noble m 
those students so to do, and noble for the conuiumity 
to spare no pains in helping them to homes and reci- 
tation rooms till better times should come. And they 
came. The cry of distress was heard in the land and 
not in vain. The buildings were restored and the work 
of the college went on till, in 1884, that of its first pres- 
ident was done. 

There was an interregnum of three years before 



I 



COLLIlGli HISTORY CONTINUED 119 

another was found. In 1887, the second president 
came, George A. Gates, just entering the prime ot 
life. He came to the college as his life work. A man, 
the soul of honor, strong in his convictions and faith- 
ful to them. By his administrative tact and wis- 
dom, trustees, faculty, students and graduates were 
brought into an increasing unity for the college. After 
thirteen years of faithful service it was a sorrow to 
him, as to all of us, that in 1900 regard for the health 
of his family compelled him to abandon his life-work 
and seek a different clime. During his administration 
there gathered over the college but one cloud. It 
rose from its connection with the chair instituted for 
"Applied Christianity." Here much in explanation 
could be written. Sufifice it to say that the cloud has 
passed aw^ay. If the faith of any has been shaken by 
what has transpired, or through fears of wdiat might 
be, let him be assured that the college has not been 
swerved from its old foundations. Neither faculty nor 
trustees have forgotten the motto upon its seal, 
**Christo Duce," as the only motto that can safely be 
follow^ed in all our human affairs, educational as well 
as social and civil. For another leader under this 
grand motto the college is now looking. 

It were easy here and pleasant, also, to note the 
names and characteristics of the different trustees, 
teachers and donors of the college, but brevity forbids. 
A few things only can be said and a few names called, 
mainlv of those wdio have gone before. Of the trus- 



I20 THE IOWA B.lXn 

tecs, as the voars have passed there have been 
scvcnty-six upon the Board, all of whom, with scarce 
an exception, have attended the meetin^^s at their own 
charges, aggrei;atini; a ju'cuniary contribution to the 
college not unworthy o{ mention. At ("irinnell, 
among the lirst to be added to their numb.M" was J. 1). 
Grinnell, the founder of the place that bears his name, 
whose impulsive, pushing nature, with his enthusiasm 
and generosity, gave courage and hope alway. A 
man ever to be appreciated by town and college. 
There were, also, llolyoke, llerriek, IMieljxs; plain 
men of sound ^ense and good business judgment. 
Then in due time came diamberlain, of clear judg- 
ment, also, who took to his heart the whole college — 
grounds, faculty, students and all — himself a sort of 
balance-wheel of the whole. The beautiful Chamber- 
lain Park donated by him. on which w^as built the 
Mary Grinnell Mears Cottage, stands as his memorial. 
Of the first teachers at Grinnell was L. F. Parker, 
who. though not in present service, yet continues till 
this day, professor emeritus, still sensitive to the life 
and interests of the college, respected by students and 
beloved by all. His two assistants, Herrick and Reed, 
have passed away. Another whose name stands upon 
every catalogue to this day is Prof. S. J. Buck, to the 
interests of the college ever faithful and true ; the act- 
ing official between the two presidents. Afterwards 
came another Parker — H. W., the man of letters and 
poetic taste. We cannot help thinking of stjch superb 



COLLEGE IHSTORY CONTINUED 121 

teachers as Brewer and Crow and Simmons, who are 
no more. Others might be named, some Hving, some 
dead, some decoyed away by such colleges as Bow- 
doin and Dartmouth and Oberlin, by universities, as 
of Wisconsin and Nebraska — a loss yet a compliment 
to the college. 

There is another class to be remembered, the 
alumni and alumnae. Here, at last, as to the real 
worth of a college is where the test comes ; in the 
character and work of those sent forth for the world's 
service. Where are they, and what are they doing? 

Iowa College is young, but her record is well begun. 
School, pulpit and press suggest the three great lines 
of power. It is in these that, after careful examina- 
tion, within a slight fraction two-thirds of her grad- 
uates are found, in thirty-seven states, while six are 
in foreign lands. As an educating force it is one of 
the recruiting stations for that grand army of common 
school teachers, so called, who are working at the 
foundation of things, furnishing in the meantime her 
measure of superintendents and principals ; sending 
comparatively not a few of her sons and daughters 
to positions in some of our leading colleges and uni- 
versities, who by their writings, scientific and literary, 
are well known, in some cases abroad as at home. 

Names are not to be paraded, yet a few will be par- 
doned, such as, beginning with older graduates, J. 
Irving Manatt of Brown University in Rhode Island ; 
Jesse Macev, in his Alma Mater ; H. C. Adams, in 



122 THE IOWA BAXD 

r^lichigan L'nivcrsilx ; O. F. Emerson, in Adelbert 
College, Cleveland; William Albert Noyes, of Rose 
rolytechnic Institute, Indiana, whose various writ- 
ini^s have made liim prominent as a eliemist ; George 
:\1. W hicher, leaching Greek and l.alin in Packer In- 
stitute in r.rooklyn. New York; Mary E. Snell, Prin- 
cipal of Snell Seminary, ( )akland. e'alifornia ; Mary 
E. Apthorp. tifleen years in ( )shk()s]i Normal School, 
Wisconsin; IClisaheth II. Avery, in Redtield College, 
South Dakota. 

These are of the older graduates, but there are 
others xounger in lite coming along, with nothing in 
the way of ecpialing. if not surpassing, those before. 

Of occupations filled by graduates there are twen- 
ty-two. all honorable and useful. As to numbers, that 
of the ministry stands fourth in rank. Here, if there 
is not a show of star preachers, there is what is better, 
a body of faithful, good workers in the vineyard. And 
so of attorneys, not cphte but nearly ecptal in num- 
ber to ministers. Sound, high-minded lawyers are 
useful and needed ; the Christian college helps to 
make such, and such there are. The roll of mission- 
aries is gratifying, both as to number and character. 
It begins with Hester A. Hillis, sister of Dr. Hillis of 
Brooklyn, who went to India, followed by George E. 
White and his wife, also a graduate, who are at Mar- 
sovan. Turkey; George D. IMarsh, of Bulgaria; Mary 
E. Brewer, in Sivas, Turkey ; so on down to Henry H. 
Atkinson, now with his wife on his way to Harpoot 



COLLEGE HISTORY CONTLVUED 123 

Fur journalists, the Review of Reviews at once sug- 
gests the name of Albert Shaw, as editor. The list 
here is not long, but a few there are scattered about 
as editors of their own or on the staff of city papers, 
as Davidson, Kasson, Bartlett, Ray, W. A. Frisbie at 
Minneapolis ; and Warren C. Baker, whose pen did 
good service among the forces that prevented the 
Louisiana Lottery from getting a foothold in North 
Dakota. 

Of physicians, the list again is not long. But here, 
at once, comes the name of Hill — Gershom H. — who 
for twenty years past has been Superintendent of one 
of our asylums for the insane, and is himself yet sane. 
By his name is suggested another (because in college 
parlance the two are connected as the Hill boys) Rev. 
James L. Hill, D.D., who can be classed neither as 
minister nor journalist because acting in both capaci- 
ties ; having in a measure left the pulpit after two 
pastorates, in an aggregate of nineteen years, to be 
identified with the organization, literature and work 
of Christian Endeavor societies at home and abroad — 
a world-wide movement for the world service. 

But enough of names ; enough to show what the 
college deserves, judged by her fruits. Her record 
and standing are good. We do not say that it is the 
best in the state, (others say so), but we may in mod- 
esty claim that, as the oldest she has kept pace in the 
foremost ranks, and stands among the best. Her 
alumni and alumn?e. mindful of the good received 



124 



THE IOWA BAND 



from ihcir Alma Mater, arc loyal to her and she is not 
ashamed of them. 

Fignres and statistics often count for but little, but 
a few to represent what the college now is compared 
with what it was at the close of the preceding chapter, 
thirt\-one years ago, nuist here be given. To the two 
buildings then, six others have been added, a house 
for the president included. To the campus of twenty- 
two acres, the beauty of which nature has kindly re- 
stored after the ravages of wind and storm, has been 
added Chamberlain Park of four acres on the east, 
and. for the athletic field on the north, fourteen acres, 
forty in all. Eight instructors then, its faculty now by 
last catalogue numbers thirty-six, besides eight other 
oflficials such as librarians, secretaries, etc. The four 
thousand volumes in the library have increased seven- 
fold and those of literary societies in like proportion. 
The catalogues of the college describing its astronom- 
ical observatory ; its museum ; its laboratories, biolog- 
ical, chemical and i)hysical ; its gynuiasium (one for 
men and one for women) ; its library and reading 
room ; its athletic grounds, etc. — fat volumes now 
compared to the lean ones of thirty-one years ago — 
are in evidence as to the apparatus and furnishings of 
a college. The total value of college property, in 
place of $t6o,ooo then, is now but a trifle short of 
$800,000. Its list of graduates, not long then, is now 
nearing the thousand. 

So stands the Iowa College of to-day, compared 



COLLEGIA HISTORY CONTINUED 125 

with what it was when it began at Davenport, fifty- 
three years ago, in its two thousand dollar building, 
with one teacher and half a dozen pupils, no apparatus, 
no furnishings of any kind save the books to be 
studied. True, much toil, the lives even of some, and 
the best part of the lives of others not a few, have gone 
into it ; and noble gifts, too, of the living and the dead. 
But who can say to no account — wasted, thrown 
away? No. In viev*^ of the past and what, by the eye 
of faith, is seen as yet to be, the sentiment of one^^ who 
in the enthusiasm of youth gave herself to Home Mis- 
sionary work for Iowa in territorial days, in the words, 
"Somebody must be built into these foundations," was 
a noble one. In this part of our Home Missionary 
work may the race of noble givers to it and faithful 
workers in and for it, never cease ! 

35 Words of Mrs. J. J. Hill, first wife of the one who gave the first dollar to 
the College, and engraved upon her monument, where with her husband she 
lies sleeping in the Grinnell cemetery. 



CHAPTER X\l 
A R.IRI- ClLini-.R, .1X1) SHORT 

IV, in conventions, si)ecclics, reports and histories 
we are wont to speak and write as though only 
men were actors in the world, then is the present 
chapter rightly named ; for we wish here expressly 
to acknowledge the influence and aid of the wives 
and sisters. As woman's w(^rk in tlie war forms one 
of the rarest chai)ters in the history of our late na- 
tional struggle, so if in this chapter the influence al- 
luded to in our Christian work in Iowa could be but 
truthfully and fully unfohk-d. it would indeed be the 
rarest chapter of all. 

But fully to present the intense labor, the kecMi 
sympathy and efficient heli)fulness of a Ikjuic mis- 
sionary's wife is not attempted. The}' can at most 
only be suggested. This began to be impressed on 
one of our earliest missionaries years ago, before, by 
happy experience, he knew what such help was, by 
a scene well worth describing. We will let him give 
it in his own words: — 

'T was a young man, and it was the first year of my 
ministry. Traveling abroad one day. from my field 
of labor. I thought I would make the acquaintance 
126 



.1 R.IRI- CHAPTER, AXD SHORT 127 

of a brother minister of whom I had heard, but whom 
1 had never seen. I went to his house. It was made 
of \o^s, with a shingle roof, with one room below, 
and the usual loft. As I remember, it was about six- 
teen feet square, with a passage through it by a door 
on each side. On one side of the room was a stove, 
on the other a bed, with the usual display of kettles, 
dishes, hats, clothing, etc., found in such houses. The 
brother was not at home. His wife, '"'" I was told, was 
above, and sick. I was invited to go up and see her. 
I did so, ascending by a ladder in one corner. 

"There, sitting on her bed, having, with evident 
exertion, arranged her person for the reception of a 
stranger, w^as the missionary's wife, frail in form, pale 
and sickly in countenance. Her constitution w-as ev- 
idently fragile, and to her bodily suffering was no 
stranger. I shall never forget how she looked, nor 
with what womanly courtesy she received me. Her 
eye beamed hopefully ; and her smile, though languid, 
was cheerful. Not a murmur did she utter, and 
scarcely an apology even for anything. An air of 
peace and contentment characterized her. I noticed 
that the whole roof was a little askew, as though it 
had been lifted up, and turned around, and let down 
again, with articles of clothing caught in the cracks. 

" That,' said she, Svas done by a hurricane we had 
a few days ago. The wind blew terribly for a while 
I was here all alone, and thought once the house was 
going ; but somehow I felt safe.' 

3" Fjrst wife of (), Emerson at De W^itt, Clinton Co, 



128 rilE IOWA B.IXD 

"Her hushaiul, slic said, had gone to the river to 
get a load of hinil)er. She was sorry he had to work 
so hard. He was lame, and not strong ; but ministers 
in a new country had to do many things to which 
they were strangers elsewliere. 'The worst of it all is; 
she said, T can't help him, I am sick so much. I feel 
so sorry when T think sometimes that I must be only 
a burden, and of no use to him.' 

"Then she went on to speak, witli her whole soul 
in it, of the missionary work in which he was engaged. 
I tarried for the night, and, in the morning, went on 
my way with a new insight into the realities of the 
mission work. Es]X'cially did T there begin to see 
how woman in patience could endure self-sacrifice, 
self-denial and toil, and how keenly, in every fiber 
of her being, she could sympathize in all her hus- 
band's plans and labors for Christ. In after years it 
was often my privilege to be in that family. Her 
health afterwards was better ; and then I saw how a 
wife, in the fortitude of a trusting spirit, could cheer, 
encourage and hel]) her husband in his work. In 
other cases T have often seen it. and as often asked, 
'What could our brethren do without their wives?' " 

The first draft made on the energies of home mis- 
sionary wives is made through their keen sympathy 
with all that pertains to their husbands' work ; the 
next is in connection with their family cares. It has 
often been remarked, and somewhat truthfully, that 
the hardships of a new country fall more heavily on 



.1 R.lRIi CHAPTER, AXD SHORT 



129 



women than men. A Western farmer, as a general 
tiling, can carry on his outdoor operations at tlie very 
outset quite as easily on his new Western farm a^ 
he could on the old and harder lands of the East. 
But, between the old Eastern homes and all the little 
home conveniences of a long-settled country, and the 
new log-cabin and the nameless discomforts of a new 
country, the difference is wide. Here it is that bricks 
are to be made without straw, and that the exigencies 
of a new^ country are especially hard upon women. 
The experience of home missionaries' wives is, in this 
respect, the same as that of others. 

As was natural, among the all sorts of Yankee 
questions alluded to in the first part of this book, as 
having been asked by the ''Band" prior to their com- 
ing West, were inquiries as to whether a missionary 
should be married or unmarried, and whether wives 
could be maintained and made comfortable. There 
came back but this one answer : "Wives are the cheap- 
est thing in all Iowa. Bring wives ! Bring Yankee 
waives, that are not afraid of a checked apron, and who 
can pail the cow, and churn the butter."" 

It would not be safe to say that every one here has 
been able literally to fill this bill ; but it is safe to say 
that the rude and rough experiences of Western life 
have been, and are now being nobly borne by the 
wives of missionaries. For a newly married couple, 
just from the East, to begin housekeeping in two 

;•' From Asa Turner. 



130 Tllli IOWA H.ixn 

rooms, with only a little stove, ami some boxes for 
eliairs and taMes, is not nuieli. There is a loiieh of 
romanee in it. with hopes of better days. To see a 
missionar\ pastor's young wife, fresh from the deli- 
eaeies of an Eastern eity home,'' at Assoeiation time, 
when ministers and delegates, and wives and ehildren, 
eome pouring in bexond the preparations of the vil- 
lage to aeeonunodate them, call for a farm-wagon, 
take the reins herself, and scour the country for straw, 
till straw l)eds are provided, and placed in bedroom, 
entry and parlor even ; to see the wives of the breth- 
ren turn in for days to hcl]) her, and then all go to 
meeting together — this, too, is well enough. There is 
a (lash and noxelt}' in it. that makes an occasion hmg 
and pleasantly to be remembered. 

r.ut let years roll on. children be born, and cares 
increase; let the days come when there is moving 
from house to house, and j^erhaps from place to 
place, till the little furniture, new at first, begins to 
be old; from year to year let the limit of the little 
salary be most plainly marked, and the increasing 
study be how to keep within it ; let the necessity 
come for all sorts of contrivances, such as making 
washstands and toilet-tables out of boxes, turning 
worn garments, making over old ones for a new look, 
refashioning those of the older children for the 
younger — and missionary wives find that no small 
part of the missionary work and the missionary sacri- 

=*« First wife of J. J. Hill at Garnavillo, 



A RARE CHAPTER, AX I) SHORT 131 

fice is theirs. Xobly have they borne it, till the bloom 
of youth has faded from many a cheek, yet cheerfully 
till some, overburdened, have fallen by the way. 

But we have alluded only to the less important 
phases of their work. When a little church, with a 
young pastor and his wafe, is started in a new village 
hitherto destitute of the means of grace, it is interest- 
ing to see what a change is soon wrought, and how 
a new and better order of things is in many respects 
speedily established. Children are gathered from 
Sabbath roamings to Sabbath-schools ; young people, 
and sometimes older ones, too, let go their balls and 
dancing-parties for sewing-circles and church socia- 
bles ; Christmas trees, children's gatherings of vari- 
ous kinds are introduced, prayer-meetings, too — the 
ladies' prayer-meeting and the church prayer-meeting. 

Some among the flock are sick, or are in poverty 
and sorrow, and must be ministered unto; and some 
are to be buried with a Christian burial. Here opens 
a field for the wife. We may say, indeed, that she is 
under no obligation in these matters more than any 
others ; that, when husbands agree to be ministers, 
wives do not ; and that they ought not to be compelled 
I0 the double toil of parochial and domestic duties. 
All true; yet who would keep them from it? Who 
would be willing to spare this part of mission work? 
Plow great a part it is ! 

But we ought not here to speak of missionaries' 
wives alone. In all our churches there are two or 



132 Tim IOWA n.ixn 

three women to one man. These ehurches at the 
outset, in the clays of their feebleness, were composed, 
in many cases, of one or two brethren only, sur- 
rounded by a band of noble sisters. Where, then, was 
their strength? \\'hat wonder if there were some 
]~>ra\incr and talking;- llien. and voliui;-. too. other than 
that done by the brethren? If. in the days of our 
Saviour, woman ministered to him. and he honored 
her ministry, if Paul acknowledged his indebtedness 
to those women who helped him in the gospel, is it 
not well for us to remember how prc^ninent has been 
woman's influence and work in the ])lanting and rear- 
ing of the Iowa churches? 

"Who is tliat?" was asked of a lady wlio had just 
admitted a stranger to her door. "Ii is tlie man I 
have long been praying for," was the reply. "He says 
he is a missionary sent by the Home Missionary So- 
ciety." To this day that Christian woman is laboring 
with tliat then newly-arrived minister, in the firm be- 
lief that he was sent of God. So has it been with 
many another. ^Ministers have not only been ob- 
tained and supported, but churches have often been 
gathered, and meeting-houses built, more through 
the prayers and energies of the sisters than through 
those of the brethren. As the world goes, when bat- 
tles are won. generals are praised, and private soldiers 
forgotten. But, in the kingdom of Christ, let it not be 
so. Let not the source of the rarest and best influence 
employed in the Master's service be unacknowledged.^* 

39 The experience of later years best confirms the truth of this chapter, 



M 



CHAPTER XVII 

FRAGMENTS 

ORE completely, if possible, to reveal to the 
reader the inner view of home missionary life, 
we present in this chapter a few incidents from the 
personal reminiscences and experiences of the breth- 
ren. Broken sketches, indeed, they will be, and 
diverse, — some joyous and some sad, some serious 
and some humorous, but all true to the life, because 
real. For some of these the writer is indebted to the 
brethren who have kindly furnished them ; others he 
has culled froni. old numbers of The Religious News- 
Letter — the files of which are an honor to, as they 
are a record of, the Iowa churches, for the time in 
which it was published. Many a regret has there 
been that it ever ceased to be. From the pen of J. C. 
IIol])rook there are, first, a few 

REVIVAL REMINISCENCES 

"Where'er we seek Him he is found, 
And every place is 'holy ground.'' 

'T was once invited to assist a home missionary in 
a series of religious meetings, under peculiar circum- 
stances. Although it was a considerable village,*" yet 

'^^ New Diggins, Wis. 



134 '''^'^' ^^^^^'^ BAsn 

llicro was iK-illicr iiK'clini;-honso. schoolliousc. hall, 
nor other room large enough to acconnnodate a con- 
gregation such as might be expected to gather, with 
the exception of a spacious uincpin allew To the 
astonishment of everyhod\ . and esi)ccially of the min- 
ister, the owner o{ iliat huiUHng, which joined the 
liquor-saloon, offered without sohcitation the use of 
it for a protracted meeting, as long as it might be 
needed; and tliat. too. without any i)ay, although it 
was bringing him in an income of ten dollars a day. 

"This otTer was ghidl\ accepted; and innnediate 
arrangements were made for its occupancy. ( )n my 
arrival at the ])lace. 1 was conducted to this novel 
house of worship, whicli 1 found fitted up with seats 
made of rough boards arranged across the alley nearly 
the whole length of it. At one end a billiard-table 
was i^laced in position for a desk ; while in one corner, 
l^ehind the speaker's stand, were ])iled uj) the pins and 
l)alls. It was well light:Ml and warmed, and, on the 
whole, constituted rpiite an inviting audience-room; 
and when, as soon came to be the case, it w^as filled 
with attentive listeners, and pervaded by a spirit of 
true devotion, the original design of it was entirely 
forgotten. Here meetings were held every evening 
for preaching and for prayer and conference and in- 
quiry during the day, for more than two weeks ; and 
the Spirit of God condescended to be present, and 
render them profitable and delightful seasons, — 
seasons which will be remembered in eternity by 



I'R.IGMBNTS 135 

sonic, as probably among- the most precious ever en- 
joyed on earth. 

"I'requently we could hear the conversation and the 
noise of the toddy-stick in the saloon adjoining, sep- 
arated from us only by a thin board partition ; but so 
deeply interesting' were our services, that these incon- 
gruous sounds did not disturb us, or divert attention 
from eternal things. Seldom have I enjoyed such 
services more, or seen more marked effects from them. 

"During the progress of these meetings, there were 
many hopeful conversions — the exact number I do 
not remember; and it is an interesting and sugges- 
tive fact that among the converts was the son of the 
proprietor of the building in which we met. At the 
close of the series of meetings, a church was formed ; 
and the record in the church book states that it w^as 

'organized on day of , in Mr. 's ninepin 

alley.' Subsequently, a house of worship w^as erected 
for this congregation. The minister, now deceased, 
and Svhose sun went down while it was yet day,' was 
afterwards called to a more important field, and was 
succeeded for a time by one wdio is now^ one of our 
ablest and most popular preachers. 

''On another occasion I was called to aid a minis- 
terial brother in a protracted meeting in a considera- 
ble farming settlement, where there was no church 
organization and no house of worship. The school- 
house being too small, it was decided to hold the serv- 
ices in a large barn, the weather being favorable. 



136 TFIE lOU'A BAND 

TIktc, day after dax', \\c preaclicd. ilic people occupy- 
ing the barn tloor. and. wlien lliat became too strait, 
resorting to the haymows and bays adjoining. Here, 
too, we enjoyed the i)resence of (iod, and a deHghtful 
work of grace was witnessed. 

"At another time, while exploring the coimtry with 
a brother minister, we came to a place of considera- 
ble im])ortance at that day. in its own innnediate vicin- 
ity, but (HX'Ui)ied in the main by a most godless com- 
niunitw Still, there was a little lea\en there. A small 
band of Christians, the rtinnant of a church that had 
once been organized there, were praying, and for 
weeks had been pleading for a revival of religion in 
the place. As soon as it was known by them that two 
ministers were in town. ihe\ at once took it as God's 
token for good, and innnediatel\- besought us. with 
an earnestness that would take no denial, to tarry, 
and begin withoiU delay a ])rotractcd meeting. 

"Xot daring to refuse, we consented. Here, too, 
the only place of gathering to be found was a vacant 
storeroom in the center of the village. Here, in a 
dimly lighted room, with drinking and gambling 
saloons on all sides of us, like Paul and Barnabas, 
we preached the gospel for two weeks ; during w^hich 
the Spirit of the Lord came down and filled the place 
with the glory of his presence. More than thirty per- 
sons were converted, and a church was afterwards or- 
ganized, a meeting-house built, and the morals of the 
place improved, as the result, we will not say of the 



PRAGMENTS 137 

1)1 caching, but of llic earnest prayers >-of those few 
pleading Christians, From such cases we are con- 
strained to say, Let bands of beHevers everywhere, 
even without ministers, be encouraged to pray, and 
trust the Lord for help; let ministers and churches 
not wait for new houses of worship or more favorable 
circumstances, but go to work in faith and hope with 
such facilities as they have, and the Lord shall bless 
them." 

Often, in new settlements, it is interesting to note 
the changes wrought by the introduction of the gos- 
pel ; and sometimes among the hardy but rough back- 
woodsmen there are marked conversions, showing 
the power of God to change the lion to the lamb. Il- 
lustrative of this, J. W. Windsor, of Durango, gives 
us a sketch under the title of 

THE PET BEAR 

"In the year 1845 I was preaching in the destitute 
neighborhoods of the lead-mining region west of 
Dubuque. On my first introduction 10 the settlement 
T found no religious services at all and no observance 
of the Sabbath. That day was usually spent as a holi- 
day, in carousing and sporting-. During the first year 
of my labor there, I did not know even a single family 
where the worship of God was observed. Many of 
the miners had dropped their proper names and 



138 77//:" /()//•./ />\/.\7) 

were known only by lilies ov names wlneh indicaiecl 
some (lislins^nisliinj;- irail oi ilieir charaeler, ami which 
had been s^i\en ihem hy iheir comi)anions. In pass- 
ing through a consiclerable tract of timber to reach 
the schoolhoiise wliere 1 preachetl. 1 fre(juentl\ met 
j)ariies of luinters on a Sabbath morning, and could 
nol fail lo hear llie oaths which mingled in their com- 
mon conversalion. 

"After a while, in coming upon them suddenly, 1 
could lu-ar ihe suppressed "llush, hush!' and sweai- 
ing would cease while 1 was w illiin hearing. This was 
the first hopeful indication of an awakened con- 
science; and it seenu'il to me to be llie dawn of a bet- 
ter state o{ things. Tlien, when the\ saw me coming, 
tliey would 'break and scatter." Their dogs, how- 
ever, told uj)on tlieir masters: and 1 could not re- 
strain a smile as my eye would deled a man here, 
and another there, trying to ])lace a tree between me 
and himself, acting the squirrel lo perfection. Here, 
too. I thought, is ho])e. 

"Tt was not long after this when a passing shadow 
in the schoolhouse window or doorw^ay, during 
])reaching. would arrest the eye, and lead to the detec- 
tion of listeners without. Then, a little bolder, and 
conscience a little more active, they would lean their 
rifles against a tree, and themselves stand out in full 
view', hearing what the preacher had to say. or would 
seat themselves on the doorstep ; and finally they 
would venture into the house, leaving their guns out- 



FRAGMENTS 1 39 

side, but still wearing- pcnvdcr-liorn and shot-belt 
across their shoulders, and would sit quiet and atten- 
tive listeners. 

"In the winter of 1847 ^^'^ \\^\(\ a series of religious 
meetings. The Rev. J. C. Holbrook came out, and 
preached ten or tw-elve days. It was a memorable 
time in the history of that community. The word 
preached was attended with divine power; and many 
of the hardest characters bowed to the mild reign of 
the Saviour, and became new creatures in Christ 
Jesus. 

"Among this number w^as 'The Pet Bear.' His 

proper name was Thomas B . He was one of 

the early pioneers, a real backwoodsman, possessing 
a pow^erful frame ; w^as just in the pride of life, a hard 
drinker, and one of the most profane men I ever 
knew% and a perfect slave to a passionate temper, that 
not unfrequently raged like a tornado. With him it 
was a w^ord and a blow, often the last first. 

''On several occasions I had attempted to converse 
with him on the subject of religion, but was answ^ered 
by a volley of oaths ; and I had learned to fear coming 
in contact with him. During the meetings, I turned 
out of my way one evening and stopped at his cabin 
door. He w^as there. I said to him, 'Mr. B., we are 
having some good meetings at the schoolhouse, and 
most of your companions attend. I wish you would 
come: we shall be glad to see you.' Without giving him 
an opportunity to reply, T bade him good-evening, and 



140 run IOWA BAXD 

walked on. To c»ur aslonishiiK'nl. lie entered the 
house with his wile. A solemn and searching- ser- 
mon was preached, in which the guilt of the sinner 
was faithfull\- exposed, and the love of the Saviour 
clearly set forth. He listened attenti\el\ . and \vai> 
evidentl}- affected. Nothing was said to him; we 
shook hands, and he left for home. 

'■l\arl\- the next morning, one of the neighbors 
came to me and said. 'Mr. W indsor, 1 wish you would 
go and see "■The Tet T.ear!" ' "W hy do you wish it?' 
I asked. lie replied. 'There is something the matter 
with him. lie came home from meeting last night 
like a fury. He sat down in a chair before the fire, 
and he has been there all night. 1 do not know what 
it is, but he is weeping like a child. As 1 was passing, 
his wife came out and whis))ered to me to ask you 
to come and see him.' 

"With silent ])rayer that God would teach me how 
to meet him. and what to say, 1 hastened to his cabin, 
and there found him sitting with his head bowed on 
his hands, between his knees, and the tears trickling 
down between his fingers and falling on the hearth- 
stone. I drew my chair up to him, and asked him 
kindly to tell me the cause of his distress. After a 
pause, he looked up in my face ; and, with a look and 
emphasis I shall never forget, he said, 'O Mr. Wind- 
sor ! I am the most wicked and the most wretched 
sinner in the world, and T don't know what to do; 
can vou tell me?' 



FRAGMEXTS I4I 

"1 endeavored, in a plain, simple way, to show him 
tlic love of the Saviour, and his readiness to pardon 
all who came to him sick of sin, and wdio desired to 
hreak away from it, and give him their love, and obey 
him. He listened, and, with a strange expression, 
said, 'What ! you make me believe that he came to 
seek and to save such a lost sinner as I am?' 

" *Yes,' I replied : 'he came tO' save the chief of sin- 
ners, who repent and hope in his mercy.' 

" 'Ah ! but,' he urged, 'you do not know what a 
wicked sinner I have been.' 

"'No,' I repHed; 'but the Saviour does; and he 
says to you, "Come unto me : I wall in no wise cast 
you out." ' 

"I spent nearly the whole day with him. He be- 
came calm, and listened like a little child. In a few 
days he had intelligently given himself to Christ, and 
felt by joyful experience that the blood of Jesus 
could cleanse even such a desperate sinner as he was. 

''He w^as no longer 'The Pet Bear,' having by 
grace put on the nature of the lamb ; constraining all 
around to exclaim, 'What hath God wrought !' He 
said to me, 'My cabin is small, but it is at your serv- 
ice. Come and preach in it ; come and hold a Sab- 
bath-school in it. I do n't know much, and should 
make out poorly teaching others ; but I can talk about 
what Jesus Christ has done for me. You know,' he 
said, ' "The Pet Rear" has been a faithful servant of 
the devil a great many years : now it is God's turn. 



142 THIi IOWA BASn 

1 hope to hcconic as faitlifiil a servant to him as ever 
I was to in\- old master. 1 want \ou to tell me what 
1 can do. 1 never was afraid of a man : and, since 
Ciotl has made me slrom;- to work for him. on^iit I 
ever to l)e asliamed to tell what a wonderful work he 
has wroU!L;ht in me?' 

'■ ■^'ou see/ he <.\\(\, 'I ha\e been ihinkinm- it over, 
and 1 know 1 shall ha\'e a hard row to hoe. 1 know 
it will he up stream with me all the wa}-. lUu then 
1 ha\e a sure Pilot if 1 only listen to him; and when 
1 !ind the stream loo rapid, whw I shall ])a(ldlc to 
shore, and tie uj) to |e.>us; and 1 know, if 1 tell him 
all about it. and ask him to help me throuL;h, he will 
do it.' 

"During- his absence from the house, his wife told 
me. that, after I left, on the i)rece(lin_q; evenin<^-, she 
expected an outburst of temper; but, instead of this, 
lie turned to her and said. 'Wife, i^et your thin^c^s on, 
and we '11 ii^o to meetin.q.' Then be.i^an a perfect tor- 
nado of oaths against himself, occasionally speaking 
to himself : 'Spew it out. Pet ; it is the last time ! Get 
rid of it ; for T mean to cut a new set of houselogs ;' 
meaninc^ that he intended to bc.c^in a new course of 
life. He went to the meetin.e:. She was sure, from his 
manner, that the sermon had touched him. On his 
wav home, she said, his oaths made her tremble; it 
seemed as though he was possessed of seven devils. 
As he reached his cabin door, he turned to her, and 
said. 'There, wife, it is all out!' and. with such an 



FRAGMENTS 



143 



expression as she had never heard from him before, 
lie cried out, /O God, help me !' He took a seat before 
the fire, and scarcely altered his position during 
the whole night. Tlie Spirit of God was dealing with 
him, and he wept the tears of a repenting and return- 
ing prodigal. Until I left that field, his was a consist- 
ent Christian walk." 

Such scenes as the preceding, though l)y no means 
uncommon, are not always connected wdth home mis- 
sion work in a new country. Sometimes it is the 
lot of one to labor on with only gradual changes for 
the better, as in the day of small things, but laying 
foundations for the future, while this is the trial of 
our faith and hope. 

The following is the partial experience of Rev. Eb- 
cnezer Alden, whose lot it was for a few years to do 
pioneer work in Cedar County, and then return to 
an Eastern field. It will be of interest to those ac- 
quainted with the localities, and will show, among 
other things, that the Home Missionary Society is 
not confined in its labors to places where churches 
are organized : 

"T became a resident of the county in the winter 
of 1844, and organized the church in the spring fol- 
lowing, — May 5. It consisted of three members. 
It was a rainy day, which prevented some others from 
being present to unite with us. It was forrned in the 



144 



Till-. I Oil. I n.ixn 



barroom of the public liouse, or. rather, the jniblic 
room of the htnise whore I boarded. The first sum- 
mer I preached in the ui)per room of the jail, used 
(luriui;- the week as a cari)enter shoj). The carpenter 
was an avowed atheist, but helped me to clear up the 
room for the meetini;s. 

"Subsequently I occupied the court-house as a 
place of worship, alternating- with the Methodist cir- 
cuit-rider. There were received into the church while 
I was there, ihirtx-lwo. I baptized nineteen infants, 
attended twenty-one funerals, and married five 
couples. The fiL^in-es do not show nmcli. It was a 
(lark day, a long trial of faith and patience. But the 
aspect of things was brightening before I left. Among 
other encouragements, a female i)rayer-meeting gave 
i:)romise of better days. I preached in various neigh- 
borhoods, usuallx' at two. sometimes at three places 
on the Sabbath, without appointments during the 
week. I ranged the ccnmtry far and near, having 
preaching stations in every direction. 

"Generally, perhaps, the brethren surpassed me in 
activity: but one winter. 1845-46. I worked hard. 1 
had many long and lonely rides. My meetings w^ere 
conducted by myself alone, preaching from a plan 
written out. but retained in my memory. T made no 
show of notes. ^Ty sermons were talks in cabins, in 
the court-house, in carpenter shops, and out-of-doors. 
T knew but little of prayer-meetings, led my own 
singing, and rode on horseback the first two vears. 



FRAGMEXTS 



145 



In I he latter part of the time, I preached from more 
full} written notes. (3ne fall I siifTered much, and 
was laid aside by the fever and ague. 

"I cannot speak of special outpourings of the Spirit ; 
but God gave me the privilege of laying foundations, 
with a few tokens of prospective growth. I have 
some remembrances of those youthful days w hich are 
vivid. I had opportunities to see nature in its prime- 
val beauty. For the pen of an Irving, those years 
would furnish materials of surpassing interest. Those 
adventures of frontier life, though but incidental to 
the work of the home missionary, wall long remain 
with me, wdiile other things, perhaps of more impor- 
tance, W'ill have slipped from the memory." 

In looking over this experience, we can only wash 
that our brother could revisit the scenes of his former 
labors, to see, in part at least, the fruits of his toil. 
"One layeth the foundations, and another buildeth 
thereon." 

As showing still further how the Home Missionary 
Society reaches out beyond the region of organized 
churches, and as reviewing the early history of Con- 
gregationalism in Western Iowa, which was for a long 
time to Eastern Iowa as a foreign field, and allowing 
here, because it cannot well be avoided, the full names 
of persons and places, we give next a paper presented 
at the Quarter-Centennial of the low^a Association 
in 1 866, respecting; 



146 THE IOWA BAM) 

riiK MISSOURI SLori: 

"Congregationalism made its first appearance on 
the slope in the t>rL;anizatit)ii r,\ the rnic-)n rimrch at 
Civil Bend in i84<;. where, withont any recognized 
minister, about a dozen Christians — Baptists, Con- 
gregationalists and Methodists — formed themselves 
into a cluirch, a(l()j)ted a creed and covenant, and 
agreed to recognize each other in chnrch relations, 
and cooperate in promoting the cause of Christ. A 
flonrishing da\' school was already in existence in the 
neighborhood. .\ Sal)bath-sch(H>l. Iiible-class and 
regular prayer-meetings were established, and at- 
tended with a good degree of religions interest, be- 
fore any minister labored among them. 

"The name Ci\il IkmkI was derisively given to this 
settlement along the Miss(~)uri River by the roughs 
who so frequeinly held high carousal at the various 
whiskey cabins that fringed the T>ig Muddy.' These 
breathing-holes of the infernal regions w^ere known 
by such euphonious titles as 'Devil's Den,' 'Hell's 
Kitchen,' etc. ; and. to designate the temperance 
neighborhood, it was called 'Civil Bend.' The resi- 
dents accepted the name : and by this title it is known 
to this day, although the post-ofifice is Gaston. On 
the 1st of July, 1850, the Rev. John Todd,"* with his 
family, joined this settlement for the purpose of 
preaching Christ on the frontiers. A dwelling of 

\^ Known as Father Todd, Tabor. 



FRAGMENTS 



147 



hewn logs had been erected and roofed, out on the 
prairies, for his accommodation, which, on his arrival, 
was perforated, and supplied with doors and windows, 
and floored with cottonwood 'puncheons.' The win- 
dow and door casings were all the sawed material 
used in constructing the house ; and this had to be 
brought a distance of twenty-five miles. The minis- 
ter's study-walls were curtains, and the study table 
a puncheon resting on two v/ooden pins driven into 
the logs. 

"A few families of Congregationalists from Illinois, 
who had started for California, stopped on the banks 
of the Missouri, opposite the Big Platte, twenty-five 
miles north of Civil Bend, in the fall of 1849, ^^'^^ 
formed the first out-station, which resulted in the or- 
ganization of a small church of ten members, reported 
ns the Church of Florence, subsequently disbanded. 
Trader's Point, nine or ten miles above Florence, 
about the same distance from Council Bluffs, and 
nearly east of where Belleview in Nebraska now is, 
was* then a flourishing village of Mormons and traders, 
of about thirty or thirty-five houses, where many 
crossed the river on their way to the Great Salt Lake 
Valley. That, also, was made a monthly preaching 
place. It has long since been all swept away by the 
Missouri. About eighteen miles above Council 
Bluffs, near the Boyer, a few Gentiles were found, 
who wished to hear the gospel, and there was another 
preaching-point. A good Christian Baptist lady, re- 



I4S 77//: /()//•./ /.\/.\7) 

sidinj;- at Slutnan's Mills. 011 the West Xisli!iil)t)tna, 
t\\ciity-ti\c or thirty miles east oi CnuncW lUuffs. sig-- 
nified a wish {o have Christ i>reache(l to her Mormon 
neighbors ; and there another monthly ai)pointment 
was made. 

"Cutler's Camp, on Silver Creek in Mills Count \-, 
now seven miles from Glenwood, formed another 
l)oint in the monthly eirenit. Linden, too. then comi- 
ty seat of Atchkinson Connty, Missonri, twenty-five 
miles south-east of Civil T.end. was then favored with 
a montlil}- visit on the Sabbath. 

''Thus, within a year from the time of bei^innini^, 
from Civil liend to the banks of the Boyer, and 
round about unto Missouri, was the ^os])cl preached. 
There were se\en appointments in the circuit, but two 
(if them fax'ored with even a loq- schoolh(;use. In the 
antnnm of 1850. the Rev. J. A. l\eed. a sort of bishop 
in the discharj^c of the duties of his ofifice, accom- 
panied by the Rev. G. B. Hitchcock, made a descent 
upon the slope at Civil Bend. Rif^ht ^lad were we 
to find that somebody cared for us, and that we were 
not hopelessly severed from the Christian world. It 
then required a full month to exchange letters w^ith 
our friends in Eastern Iowa. Our nearest post-office 
was fifteen miles distant. That same autumn, 1850, 
Brother William Simpson, the first regular itinerant 
of the AI. E. Church on the slope, entered upon the 
charge of Council BlufYs, and came to Civil Bend, 
claiming all Alethodists as his. He proved a devout, 



FRAGMENTS 149 

genial, working- Christian. With his cooperation 
the first revival was enjoyed during the second winter 
at Civil Bend. A single family of x\frico-Americans. 
who had earned and paid thousands of dollars for 
their freedom, came into the settlement, and were 
encouraged to attend school ; for which, some who 
*had never attended school with niggers,' nor any- 
body else, for they could neither read nor write, de- 
termining that their children should not be so dis- 
graced, accidentally or by design burnt down the log 
building which constituted our schoolhouse and place 
of worship. This occurred during watch night of 
1850-1851. 

'Tn June, 185 1, the waters of the rivers, the waters 
of the uplands, and the waters above the firmament, 
combined to drive the people from Civil Bend. The 
river rose threateningly, the heavens gave forth fre- 
quent floods, and the streams from the blufifs swept 
down in torrents, bearing away bridges, fences and 
all before them. Five miles of water spread out be- 
tween us and the highlands. Sloughs were waded 
to go to meeting, where horses wotdd mir*^. down, 
and abundance of bufYalo-fish were speared with 
pitchforks amid the tall grass. Mosquitoes enough to 
dim the sun and moon chimed in to sing the requiem 
of our hopes in that land of promise. 

"That was a trying time to the itinerancy. A sur- 
plus of water and scarcity of bridges necessitated a 
curtailment of the circuit. Florence and Trader's 



150 Till- I ()]]■. \ j^.wn 

\\n\n continued to be \isilcHl monthly; hut fii^luini^ 
nioscjuittjcs 1)\' nii^ht. and traveling" o\\ ln)rsel)ack by 
day, with rcLi'ular ai^iic shakes for variety, were not 
ver\- well adapted to make a l>oaneri;es of our itin- 
erant. lUit no luiman lives were lost; and, as already 
intimated, we had oiu' iirsi re\i\al the follmvinii' win- 
ter. 

"In the fall of 1S51. r)rother (1. (i. Rice, from l^nion 
dheolo^ieal Seminar}. 1 think, arrived at Council 
Bluffs, under the patronai^e of the A. 11. M. S.. and 
entered upon the work of ])reac]iinL;- tlu' j4"os|)el. .Vfter 
the experience of 1S51. on the Missoin-i bottom, sev- 
eral families resolved to take hij^her ground, believ- 
ing- that it afforded a firmer basis for the object, which, 
from the hrst. the\- had in view. \i/... the establish^ 
ment of an institution ui learning, in connection with 
the promotion of relig^ion. After considerable search, 
the}' located at Tailor. Three families moved there, 
or to that vicinity, in 1852, purchased claims, lived 
in log cabins ; at once began a weekly prayer-meet- 
ing, Sunday-school, and regular preaching, which 
have continued withotit intermission U]) to the pres- 
ent time. In ( )ctober. 1852. a Congregational 
clmrch was formed, with eight members. This was 
the first church on the slope which assumed the 
Congregational name." 

This church at Tabor, it should be remarked, is now 
the largest but one in the state. The institution al- 
luded to is now known as Tabor College. It has. 



FRAGMENTS 15 1 

according to the latest published statement, a presi- 
dent and four other instructors; twenty-one student^ 
in the college classes, and one hundred and four in 
the preparatory department ; with property estimated 
at fifty thousand dollars, and a library of twelve hun- 
dred volumes. 

In such fields as just described, — indeed, in all new 
countries liable to excessive rains, with few roads and 
fewer bridges, — the missionary needs the pleasant fac- 
ulty of making the best of things, as one prime quali- 
fication for his work. Many a one has had an expe- 
rience similar to that related below, though not al- 
ways as happily borne. 

GOING TO ASSOCIATION*^ 

''Last fall, at the meeting of this Association at S., 
Brother C. proposed for our spring meeting to con- 
vene at C. Brother T. knew nothing of C, except 
that it was the home of our esteemed Brother A., and 
that it was situated somew^here 'within the bounds' 
of F. County. But Brother T. was expected to be 
there, and he very naturally expected to see his 
brethren there also. The meeting was to be held on 
the third Tuesday in M., at eventide; and of this fact 
all the brethren were warned in due time. 

"On the Monday previous to this said Tuesday, 

42 Note 15. 



15: 77//: /()//•./ n.ixn 

Urolhcr T. would needs set forth in the ecclesiastical 
l)ui;g\', propelled by the ancient horse, liilly. He first 
made diligent hiquirics, however, as to the location of 
the said town of C ; hut all men wagged their heads, 
and could do no more. They knew nothing of any 
Mich citw J he maps were ei|iially silent, and there 
was no time ior correspomlence. seeing that the mail 
fiom llrother T.'s house to 1'. L'oimt} descriheth the 
circle of the greater ram's-horn. and never returneth. 
Brother T. was in a great quandary, and knew not 
whether to proceed to the southwest, the west or the 
northwest. Yet Brother T. was expected to be there. 
So, after nuich diibitatiun. he concluded to follow tlie 
wisdom of the prairie-haw k ; and. as the game was 
not in sight, to beat about for it. lie started south- 
ward and westward, driving towards C, which lieth 
upon the S., and is a town fair to see. Here he found 
a certain Gains, a miller of much substance, whose 
daughter is a miller also. Here he tarried ; and in 
the evening they all sang hymns, and rejoiced abun- 
dantly. In the morning, mine host, and the host of 
the whole chin-ch. would go with Brother T. to ques- 
tion certain men of his town ; and, behold, a man was 
found who had heard of C, and knew where it was, 
but had never been there. Also he heard that the 
river must be forded at this place, and that it w^ould 
be nearer swimming than fording. 

"So, a good while before he came to the river, he 
bade farewell to his host, who bade him good speed. 



FRAGMENTS 



153 



and syid, 'See thou art not drowned in the river!' 
And, after a w hile, he came to the river. Now, there 
was a mighty bridge there, and it was Hke secession ; 
for it was easy to get upon it, and it carried one fairly 
for a time; but at the end of it was a grievous jump, 
and there was nothing but sharp rocks and a quag- 
mire at the bottom. Over this l^ridge Brother T. 
carried all the contents of the ecclesiastical buggy. 
After these were deposited on the other side, he re- 
turned and said to the ancient steed, 'Billy, there is 
nothing for it but for us to take to the stream.' 

"So they addressed themselves to enter the river. 
And, at the very first, the waves flowed into the 
buggy, w^hich caused Brother T. to raise his feet ; and 
presently the waters reached the seat, which caused 
the rider thereupon to go up higher; and he sat on 
the topmost rail of the seat. And the waters pre- 
vailed even to the arm of the seat ; and Brother T. 
saw the coat-tails of 'divinity,' that they streamed out 
behind upon the w^aters of the river; and he was a 
spectacle to certain men which stood by ; after which 
the waters abated, and presently they came forth 
again upon the dry land. 

"After this, divers other streams were crossed, and 
much desolate green prairie ; and at evening, when 
the stars shone, behold, they were at the place C. 

"Now, because Brother T. was the only minister 
that had arrived, he must needs preach to the people ; 
and, when the meeting was done, the two delegates — ^ 



154 



77//: /()//•./ B.ixn 



brother B. of P. and Brother A. of M. — essayed to 
liavc the Association organized : but, when they 
looked upon the record. the\- found there was not a 
quorum ])resent. So they went to lodge with the 
people. And the next day. Brother T. told them whnt 
was known to him of the condition of the churches. 

''Xow, at the former meeting, the brethren had 
appointed Brother T. to read an essay (^n the anni- 
hilation of the wicked ; so. in the evening, it was read, 
albeit the wicked did not come to hear it. 

"And after this, the hope of seeing our brethren 
Aanished. nnd we came together no more. And -f 
those brethren who came not had but known how the 
people waited for them, and Ik^w they climbed the 
steeple, and how the green sea that surrounds the 
place was swept often with a spy-glass in expectation 
of their approach, thev would have taken care not to 
have caused such a disai~)pointment. 

''And. besides this, it was a shame to Brother T. 
that it was confidently asserted many times that the 
brethren were coming, when, behold, the things that 
were seen were only a green bush, a stray sheep, some 
calves, certain horses, and. mayhap, a few mules! 
These thines ought not to be ranked with delinquent 
ministers at such times. 

"So. when all was done. Brother T. wrote it upon 
tho book, that — 

'*' 'T. Nobodv but Brother T. and two delecrates can 
testifv to haviufr b^^^n ^t C on +1ta twentieth dav of 
M., in the year of our Lord t86-. 



FRAGMENTS 155 

" 'II. That, in consequence, nothing was done, ex- 
cept that Brother T. had a good visit. 

" TIL That the Association is expected to meet 
next fall at D. 

'' T\'. That Brother T. is expected to be there.' " 

Allusion has once or twice been made to Abner 
Kneeland and his followers, who settled upon the Des 
Moines River, near Farmington, at a place called 
Salubria. The writer remembers well a visit paid to 
the old infidel, nearly twenty-five years ago. He was 
of noble form, venerable in appearance, and treated 
his visitor courteously. On frankly telling him that I 
had come to see him simply out of curiosity, ''Yes," 
he replied, pleasantly ; 'T suppose I am about as much 
of a show as an elephant;" and then expressed his 
readiness to converse on any topic or answer any 
questions I might choose. In private intercourse, his 
infidelity and atheism were of the boldest kind, and his 
public lectures gross. In derision of the marriage 
institution, he used to say, ''Tie the tails of two dogs 
together, and they will fight. Allow them to go free, 
and they will be good friends." He and his followers 
were quite zealous and successful, p.t first, in sowing 
the seeds of their infidelity among the new settlers by 
pamphlets, periodicals, public lectures, etc. Ridicule 
of "priests," making sport, sometimes mock, of sacred 
things, entered largely into all their efforts. But a 
view of the positions they assumed, and the manner 



I5t» 77//: lOJJ'.l B.LXD 

in which they tried to defend tlieni. can best be seen 
in the followino- acconnt i^iven by one whose first min- 
istry was in tlic midst of them. — the Rev. Harvey 
Adams : 



THE IXFIDI-L CET.KRRATTOX 

Early one afternoon in the month of Aug-ust, 1847, 
a colj^orteur of the American Tract Society called at 
our liniise. and told nu- tlicrc was to be a i^-reat cele- 
bration in the Knceland nci,ii]i])orhood ; and, as he 
desired to see what lhc\- would say and do, lie said he 
should attend, and wished me to accompany him. 
As the distance was short, it being- only a mile to the 
place, with staff in hand we were soon there. The 
^fathering- was in a charming grove on the east banlc 
of the beautiful Des ]\Ioines. The object of the gather- 
ing was to celebrate the anniversary of Mr. Knee- 
land's liberation from pris(in in f.oston. to which 
place he had been sentenced for blasphemv. There 
were present, of both sexes and of all ages, about a 
hundred and fifty : so they claimed : yet probably not 
more than half of these were very skeptical in their 
views : the others came simplv as spectators. A plat- 
form was erected for the speakers, and seats were pre- 
pared for the ladies. The men stood round about in 
a circle. When we arrived, the speaking had com- 
menced. On our joinin.g the company, the snap of the 
eye. the sly glances, and the jogging of one another, 



FRAGMENTS 



i:>/ 



seemed to sa\-, 'Hicre's a priest amoiii^' lis : jic'll liave 
a good time !' 

The speeches were spiced with such condiments as 
these : 

"We are not indebted to Christianity for the first 
practical good. What has it done? Look at Spain! 
Look at Alexico ! In early days, Mexico was a par- 
adise. Her people were among the most virtuous and 
happy. But ever since Columbus, the Christian mis- 
sionary, came over and converted them to Christian- 
ity, they have been miserably degraded and wretched. 
We glory in infidelity. We wear it as the cloak for 
our virtues, just as the Christians wear Christianity 
as the cloak for their vices." 

Cries of, "Yes, yes ! that's so !" came from the 
crowd ; and one, who evidently spoke for my special 
benefit, said, "There was St. Gregory, who was cov- 
ered with sin six feet deep." 

At the close of the speeches, a pressing invitation 
was given the writer to "take the stand." This was 
declined, with the remark that I came merely as a 
spectator; and that, if I spoke, I could not expect to 
change their views. "He dare not speak without a 
pulpit before him. Twont do where there can be a 
reply," said an old man. 

As advantage would be taken of my silence, the in- 
stant resolve was formed to say something- if there 
should be a favorable apportunity. Nor was there need 
of waiting long. The ladies withdrew to prepare the 



158 THE low A BAND 

dinner, while the men all elosed u]) thick around "the 
priest" — this being- the term ])\ which ihey always 
designate a Christian minister. 

The two champions of the day were larg-e, gray- 
headed men, who literally "stooped for age." CJ)ne 
of them was an apostate from a Baptist church in 
X'ermont, and the other from a Presbyterian church in 
Pennsylvania. They placed themselves directly be- 
fore me, and stood leaning forward on their canes. 
I was seated. Compared with myself, they were al- 
most giants. 

In giving the setpiel. for convenience I will call one 
of them Dr., as he was a physician, the other AIcI>. 
and "the priest" IT. M., for Home Alissionary. The 
doctor was sour in look, crabbed and bitter in speech. 
McB. was more courteous, but oily and sarcastic. No 
sooner had they placed themselves thus before me, 
than they commenced catechizing, thus: — 

McB. — "As I take you to be a philosopher and a 
theologian, I should like to ask a few questions, if you 
have no objection." 

H. M. — ''Certainly you can. Perhaps I shall not 
be able to give you satisfactory answers ; but, if you 
ask civil questions, I am bound to give civil replies, 
as far as I am able." 

McB. (very smoothly). — "Well, just for the pur- 
pose of information, will you please to tell us how 
large the Holy Ghost is?" 

The point of this was that they were materialists, 



FRAGMHXTS 



^59 



and did not believe in any such thing as spirit ; and, 
therefore, if I, "a philosopher and theologian," could 
not tell how large the Holy Ghost was, of course I 
nuist be the next passenger bound for Salt River. 

H. M. — "That is rather a tough question, ^Ir. 
McB. ; but when you are attacked with something 
like the bilious colic, and distressed almost to death, 
and feel as though another gripe or two would take 
your life, how large is the pain?" 

At this there was a general laugh, and the question 
was dropped as quickly as though it had gone to ob- 
livion. 

McB. — "Man does what he does under the influ- 
ence of circumstances over which he has no control. 
He is not responsible for his actions, because he can- 
not help them." 

//. M. — "And so you came all the way to this cele- 
bration by means of circumstances which you could 
not control? And all the rest have done the same 
thing?" 

McB. — "Certainly. Show me a thing that is not 
the fruit of circumstances." 

H. M. — ''Then the priests do what they do to de- 
stroy infidelity and atheism through circumstances 
they cannot control. But how^ comes it tO' pass that 
you consider them so criminal for what they do? Why 
do you speak of them as the enemies of the race, as 
you have done to-day? Why not rather commend 
their efforts? More especially, why do you cele- 



l6o THE lOU'A nA\^D 

brate the day of Mr. Kiicclaiurs sentence and impris- 
onment? The Liostonians chd what they did nnder 
circumstances they could not control." lA ^ood deal 
of laug^hing.] 

McB. — "lUit it is the circumstances. Men cannot 
control the circumstances of one of their actions." 

//. M. — "Then if I take my cane, and g^ive you a 
sound drubhiui;- t)\er the head, 1 ma\- sin"- all the way 
home to-nio-ht ? And you will chari^e it all to the cir- 
cumstances? You will not consider me at fault?" 

McB. — *A'es. I'll punish the circunistarcjs: -1 
won't i)unish you." [A loud laugh. | 

H. M. — "That 's very crenerous ; but do you act on 
that principle? Suppose some one against whom you 
hold a note should come to you and say. 'T know, that, 
as men use language. I owe }Ou ; but I never intend 
to pay. I would not. if I could as well as not. Cir- 
cumstances do not compel me to pay, and I shall not 
do it.' Would you not treat him to a constable?" 
[Cries of "Good ! good !"] 

McB. — ''All this hair-splitting about would and 
would not, right and wrong, good and evil, guilt and 
innocence, is a humbug. These terms all amount to 
the same thing. There is no such thing as right and 
wrong." 

H. M. — "I knew that would follow from your doc- 
trine, though I did not know that you would so openly 
avow^ it. But w^ill you tell us why you employ these 
terms so freely yourselves? and more especially W'hen 



PRAGMENTS i6i 

you speak of the priests?" [Cries of "Good!" with 
laughter.] "And then, too, most certainly, if I give 
you a real drubbing with my cane, you cannot say 
that I do any harm or wrong; for there is no such 
thing. Not one of the priests has ever done any. 
Now, to try your principle, suppose I take my cane, 
and make a serious experiment on your head?" 

McB. (very emphatically). — "I don't like — that 
illustration about the cane." [A roar of laughter.] 
"The amount of it is, when we speak of doing, or 
when we speak of right and wrong, or of the mind, 
soul, spirit, and the like, we use words wathout mean- 
ing. There is no such thing. That wdiich is not 
material is nothing." 

H. M. — "Doctor, you and I have had a little con- 
versation on this point before ; but as we did not get 
through, and it is now up again, I should like" — 

Dr. (very sourly). — "None of your gospel pettifog- 
ging. I know you have your visions and dreams, and 
soul and spirit, and Holy Ghost and all that in your 
Bible; but" — [Cries from the crowd, "Doctor, let 
him go on ; let him go on !'] 

H. M. ■ — "You may call it pettifogging, or what 
you please, doctor : I will try to talk common sense, 
but am ready to leave it to the company whether I do 
or not. If I understand yoit, Mr. McB., you say that 
that which is not material is nothing." 

McB. — "Yes. That's it. Immateriality is an ab- 
surditv." 



l62 THE IOWA BAND 

H. M. — "Von will adniit tliis general law of nature, 
that 'like produces like/ 1 suppose." 

McB. — "Oh, yes ! Xo one can dispute that." 

H. M. — "So that all thoughts, all the products of 
the mind, whatever we call them, are really matter." 

McB. — "Most certainly." 

H. M. — "And have the attributes of matter; that 
is to say, the mind, the soul, and all thoug-hts, have 
length, breadth, thickness, weight, and the like." 

McB. — "Certainly. It is absurd to talk of a thing 
which is not material." 

//. M. — "\'ery well. When we conmiunicate 
thoughts, we connnunicate matter, we communicate 
sha])e, size and weight. That is understood. Xow. 
then, if you two old men continue to talk to me, and 
I receive your thoughts without making any reply, 
you will reduce yourselves to skeletons ; and I, though 
small, bid fair to become a pretty corpulent man." 
[The woods rang with laughter.] 

The call to dinner now came, and my two infidel 
friends seemed to be very glad of it. But they had 
become very good-natured. I was invited to partake 
with them, and was conducted to the head of the 
table. When seated, and while the w-aiters \vere serv- 
ing, the doctor asked me if I could partake \vithout 
"grace." The reply was, that, if they did not desire 
that I should publicly invoke a blessing, I w^as not 
limited to that method of doing it. Soon after this, 
the doctor said to those near him, but for mv l^enefit. 



FRAGMENTS 163 

"He cats with [)ublicans and sinners." To this I 
could not help replying, "Thank you, doctor. Happy 
to see you recognize the distinction." 

Dinner being over, and the furniture removed, the 
tables were arranged in a row, and seats placed upon 
and in front of them for the ladies ; while the gentle- 
men were formed into a semicircle, facing the ladies. 
The toast-master conducted the "priest" to the center 
of the half-circle, and a little in advance of it, where 
every one could see him. And now for the toasts and 
sentiments. One was read, and cheers called for. But 
the crowd were silent, as if at a funeral. Another, and 
a third ; but with no response. After what had passed, 
the company did not feel like giving cheers to such 
sentiments. Volunteers were called for. One man 
gave out a sentiment, and lifted up his arms, and ex- 
claimed, "Hoo^ — ra !" but his was the only voice. 
Among the volunteer sentiments, this was one : 
''Eighteen hundred and fourteen years ago, Jesus 

Christ was imprisoned for blasphemy ; and years 

ago, Abner Kneeland was imprisoned in Boston for 
the same crime ; the latter a philosopher, the former 
a juggler." 

The design of their toasts and sentiments, as well 
as of all the previous speeches, seemed to be, to de- 
liver themselves of the gall and spleen they had treas- 
ured up against priests, priestcraft, and Christianity 
in general. They probably also intended to confirm 
such as miqht be doubtful. But the celebration had 



i64 



THE low A BAND 



a very difforont rcsiiU. The erowcl e\i(lenlly left with 
the convietion, that, whatever inii^lit l)e said against 
Christianity, certainly infidelity had not many attrac- 
tions. 

I am not aware that any of that leathering- have 
since been active in propagating it. h^-om that time 
to this, there has not been another celel)ration of the 
kind, that I have heard of. They have not met, as 
before, to hear infidel lectures on the Sabbath. The 
one wliom J have called Mel), renounced his iniuklity 
subsequently ; and it is rejiorted that he died with the 
hope of the Christian. Since that time, also, 1 have 
atended many funerals among those families; and, in 
one case, when three young persons, belonging to 
three different families, were buried at the same time. 
They had been drowned. Alany have been the acts of 
courtesy and kindness shown to the writer by individ- 
uals who were previously of that belief. 

In the retrospect, I am satisfied that all the lectures 
I ever gave on the evidences of Christianity accom- 
plished little for the purpose, compared w'ith the con- 
versation here detailed. This was not sought or cov- 
eted. There was clearly a providence m it all. It w-as 
one of a number of occurrences which have been over- 
ruled to destroy infidelity in that region. To God be 
all the honor. 

But these sketches have been sufficiently extended. 
The}' illustrate a few of the varied phases of mission- 



FRAGMENTS 1 65 

ary life. We might add more, which would bring out 
scenes in the home circle, sometimes partaking of the 
sad, in hours of affliction, in remote settlements, away 
from friends, where husbands have preached the 
funeral sermons of wives, a father of children ; but we 
forbear. As to that infidel colony, its hopes are 
blasted. The leaders being bold, but blasphemous, 
their efiforts for political ascendency in the country, 
and to set at naug'ht sacred things by mock funerals, 
and in other ways, soon overreached themselves. The 
people became disgusted as they saw the tendenc}' 
and the aim. A strange series of deaths, too, among 
them, had its effect. Better things came in ; and 
Kneelandism, as an organization, is a thing of the 
past. 



CHAPTER XVIII 
LOSS AND GAIN 

HOW often, when for duty's sake, for the sake of 
Christian service to be rendered, we enter upon 
some path, expecting and consenting to the loss of 
many things, we find, that, of all others, that was the 
very path to l)e chosen for real gain ! "He that loseth 
his life for my sake shall find it." Solomon chose wis- 
dom, and God gave him both wisdom and riches. 
Twenty-five years ago, every one thought it a great 
sacrifice for a minister to go West : no one would go 
except at the stern call of duty. As between an East- 
ern and a Western settlement, the advantages then 
seemed to be entirely with the former. Well is it re- 
membered how a rhetorical ])roduction by one whose 
tace was turned westward, under the title of ''Induce- 
ments to go West," was then received by us at the 
Seminary. It was with a sort of smile, as much as to 
say, "A\^ell. it is a happy faculty to look at the bright 
side of things ; and. if one is going, he may as well 
make the best of it." Little was it then thought that 
what appeared fancy was but half the sober truth ! 
Let it not be supposed that a Western life has been, 
or is, all gain and no loss ; bu^. looking over the past. 
i66 



LOSS AND G.IIX 167 

let lis strike a balance in this regard, and see where it 
stands. 

Twentv-fivc years ago, one of the first things 
thought of by one contemplating the Western work- 
was health. It was supposed that he must have the 
fever and ague, probably a bilious fever ; and, at any 
rate, must go through a process of acclimation, the 
issue of which must determine whether he could stay 
in the country or not. We smile now at the way we 
used to think of this. Some of us, indeed, have had 
the fever and ague, and some have not. There have 
been some deaths: and from some families children 
have been taken, one after the other, till the record 
has become a sad, sad one. But so, doubtless, it 
would have been elsewhere. Taking the Band for a 
sample, it surely cannot be said, that, in the matter of 
health, there has been loss : w^e should say, probably 
gain. It is doubtful whether the same number of 
their classmates who chose an Eastern settlement 
have been more highly favored than they. In the 
case of no one is it certain that his health was injured 
by coming West ; while in others it has been im- 
proved, and life, doubtless, has been prolonged. One 
of them at least, perhaps more, can say, that, for more 
than a quarter of a centur3^ he has never lost a single 
appointment from ill health, nor more than a dozen 
from any cause. 

Next to the matter of health, it is natural to con- 
sider that of sui^port and home comforts. This, per- 



l68 Tim IOWA BAXD 

haps, docs not at first enter nuicli intc^ the calculations 
of those proposing to labor in the ministry at the East 
or W^est ; but it comes up sooner or later, and may 
be properly considered. Four hundred dollars a year, 
twentv-five vcars ago, was about the highest limit of 
missionary salary. That sum now seems small indeed. 
It did then. lUit with beef and pork at two or three 
cents a ]H)und, corn twelve and a half cents a bushel, 
and other products of a fertile soil in proportion, it is 
easy to see that a little money would go a great way. 
True, clothing, furniture. 1)ooks. etc., were higher than 
at the East, and expenses in this direction had to be 
curtailed. ^lissionarv families, like all other families 
in a new country, had to dispense with a great many 
things considered indispensable in an Eastern home. 
But they managed to get along somehow. Gifts came 
in sometimes from the people. Missionary boxes met 
many an exigency. Occasionally, some books or 
^ther remembrances came from Eastern friends. 

As liying expenses haye increased, missionary 
grants have growm larger. Sometimes the home 
missionary, driven to buy a little place, because too 
poor to rent one, or wishing to get a little foothold 
for a home, has found himself, by the rise of prices in 
a thrifty village, actually gaining in property. Mean- 
time, the churches have, many of them, become able 
to give more ample support. Taking it all in all, as 
a matter of fact, it is presumed that those longest in 
the field have no cause of complaint. Perhaps, in the 



LOSS ASn GAIN 1 69 

end they are just as well off, and, on the whole, have 
been as comfortably provided for, so far as the real 
necessaries of life are concerned, as if they had been 
in Eastern settlements. They have had to dispense 
with many things, at times, that they might have had 
elsewhere : and, perhaps, were their wdves called upon 
to testify at this point, they might say at once that the 
advantage was with the Eastern settlement ; not 1)e- 
cause they are quicker to complain than their hus- 
bands, but because, as before stated, the privations of 
a new country fall most heavily within their peculiar 
province. Still, claiming a little advantage for the 
West on the score of health, we are willing to let that 
and this balance. 

Next, let us look at mental development. A man's 
surroundings will, of course, have an influence upon 
his mental habits and intellectual culture. The time 
was, when the advantages in this respect seemed 
nearly all with the Eastern field. As to many things 
they were. "Early introduction," says a distinguished 
writer,"' "to active labor in an extended field, partak- 
ing of a missionary and itinerant character, may, 
amidst much usefulness, spoil a man for life in all that 
regards progress of erudition, and productiveness of 
the reasoning powers." True, in the old and narrow 
field there may be the more quiet study, more help from 
books and literary intercourse, more time to elaborate 
and polish. There may be, moreover, among the 

« Horace Bushnell, 



170 



THE IOWA BAND 



hearers a more rigid demand for this sort of excel- 
lence in sermonizing", creating in the preacher an am- 
bition to produce it. But, possibly, right here in the 
strong point of many a preacher is his very weakness. 
His hearers demand, and his life is worn out in sup- 
plying, what, while admired, fails to bless. lUit we 
are to compare, not criticize. 

The Western man, on the frontier work, as was that 
of all Iowa once, suffers right here some loss. Here 
are felt some of his greatest privations, and some of 
his greatest self-denials are practised. His trial is 
not that he has to wear a seedy coat, as good perhaps 
as his 1)rother Christians about him wear; nor that, 
in his travels of a wet season, he occasionally gets 
"sloughed," or has to swim the stream. This is just 
what his neighbors do, and is nothing in a new coun- 
try. But, if he takes a paper, he reads of books which 
he can never see. He thinks of ministers' meetings, 
and the culture of literary fellowship among his 
brother ministers, which he can never enjoy. Ex- 
changes, even, are out of the question. His duties 
call him much abroad out of his study, if he has one ; 
and when in it, he groans in spirit, sometimes, that it 
is so poorly furnished with the needful helps. But this 
Western field has its advantages, too, even in the mat- 
ter of intellectual development. The impression 
twenty years ago is not quite right, — that, if a man 
goes to a Western missionary field, he must once for 
all abandon all thoughts of mental culture and growth, 



LOSS AND GAIX 17 I 

Men arc U) he studied, as well as books; and the con- 
tact of mind with mind is a vigorous mental stimulus. 
Place now a young minister in some new Western 
settlement, where, in his line, nothing yet is estab- 
lished, nothing even started ; where everybody and 
everything about him is on the quick, earnest move ; 
v.here are commingled from all quarters every shade 
of prejudice, opinion and belief; and where all, with 
the trammels off, are free to speak out just what they 
think, and he must have some earnest mental work. 
Every inch he gains here he must get by a sort of con- 
quest. Aside from the constant readiness whicli he 
must have for hand-to-hand conflicts in his neighborly 
calls, the right arm of power in his public preach- 
ing must be the plain Bible truth, aimed straight 
at the mark, with an earnestness that means some- 
thing. His hearers, if he gets hearers at all, must 
be drawn together and held together, not by 
the force of family or social relations, not by the 
beauty of the sanctuary where they meet, nor by the 
excellence of the singing; but, in the absence of all 
these, it may be, by the presence of one among them, 
positive and strong, whose preaching and whose life 
are calculated to produce the blessed fruits of the gos- 
pel. In all the demands of a growing country, he must 
be a practical man. If he makes for himself a place, 
holds it, and builds upon it, he will and must be an 
intellectually growing man. We do not say that 
Western men are more completely developed Intel- 



1^2 Tiin lou'.i B.ixn 

Icctuallv ihan Eastern, but that tbeir position is not, 
on the whole, unfavorable in this respect. Thrown 
upon their own resources, and standing at the head of 
growing influences, which they are called upon to 
gather, to hold and to guide, they themselves are 
compelled to grow in mental strength, energy, breadth 
of views and high Christian aims. There are advan- 
tages here, which, for all the purposes of earnest Chris- 
tian work in the world, we must claim as items of 
especial gain. 

The absence in a new country of established cus- 
toms, usages and precedents, has been alluded to as 
one of the disadvantages of a Western field. The 
young man who takes an Eastern church has the w^ay 
prepared before him. Tn many respects, h.e has only 
to keep things as they are, with tried men as advisers, 
and staid Christians to help. To start anew in a new 
country Is to start without any such aids. But even 
this has its advantages. Besides helping to draw out 
of the minister all there is in him. it is often of use, 
both to him and his little church, to be free from the 
trammels of previous customs and habits. Churches 
get into bad ways, as well as into good ones. Much 
as we revere the memory of our Puritan Fathers, all 
wisdom was doubtless not with them. We do not 
suppose that New England churches and institutions 
are such perfect models that there can be no im- 
provement upon them ; neither do we think that every 
change, proposed or actual, is an advance. But on 



LOSS AND GAIN 173 

this Western field, if anywhere, with the Word of God 
for our guide, and freedom to adapt ourselves to actual 
wants and circumstances, we should improve even 
upon the excellences of the past. In some respects, 
as already indicated, there ought to be among us, 
better churches, better colleges, and better methods 
of doing things, than in older regions. In our peculiar 
freedom to adopt new expedients and plans, there- 
fore, we claim one advantage. If we do not use it for 
improvement, it is because we. lack wisdom or grace, 
or both, to make the most of our opportunity. 

''But there is, of course, a loss," it will be said, "as 
to the privileges of refined society, in going West." 
To this we say, "In your refined society, so called, 
there is much that is artificial, formal and sometimes 
hollows AVe have learned that there is such a thing 
as being civilized and refined almost to death. Ex- 
perience has proved it to be a real luxury at times to 
get out of the conventionalities of artificial life, into 
the frank atmosphere of true 'log-cabin hospitality.' " 
The free-and-easy w^ays of new-country socialities w^e 
heartily put down as on the side of gain, rather than 
of loss. Indeed, those of us who have been here 
longest almost sigh for things as they used to be 
twenty years ago ; when all w^ere more upon a level, 
when every house was open and every latch-string 
out. No one need fear loss in this direction. 

Some ministers, even, may like to be in the neigh- 
borhood of new'Spapers, where names somehow creep 



174 ^^^ 101 J\ I BAND 

out in public print ; and near anniversaries, and plat- 
forms, and speeches to be heard, — and made. There 
is in this a pleasure, and a kind of privilege. The only 
gain we have to suggest here is that involved in labor- 
ing away from all such influences in the main, away 
from all appeals to pride and ambition, in a kind of 
obscurity and isolation, where the true motives of the 
ministerial work have a better chance to operate, and 
where, as they are felt, and they alone, purer and 
richer rewards of ministerial labor are realized. 

There is one more point to be considered, in re- 
spect to which all will doubtless concede that the 
Western field has the decided advantage. It is the 
privilege of helping to make things ; of growing up 
with them, and seeing the fruit of one's labors. 'T 
would rather," said an old settler, — 'T would rather 
help build a log schoolhouse, and see things grow, 
than live in a country that is all made." Notwithstand- 
ing the hardships of a new country, there is little 
doubt that the generation that makes a country en- 
joys it better than one that takes it after it is made. 
The pioneer minister shares in all this work of con- 
struction. It may be in many respects a hard work. 
He begins low down, but at every upward step he has 
a peculiar joy. He sees a little flock gathered almost 
as "a flock in the wilderness." He joyfully shares 
their first communion season. The earthen plate and 
glass tumbler are in due time exchanged for a real 
communion service. He sees, in different directions, 



LOSS AND GAIN 1 75 

gospt'l institutions and influences beginning to take 
shape around him. At length a meeting-house is 
built. This is for him a great day. He sees how that 
new house of worship helps to make for him nearly a 
new congregation, a new Sabbath-school, and of him- 
self almost a new minister. Most of all does he re- 
joice, when, in connection with this new sanctuary, as 
is often the case, the Spirit of the Lord comes down, 
and the spiritual keeps progress with the material. 
Men who gave of their money for the material temple 
are often the first to be brought as lively stones into 
the spiritual building. 

So he goes on, with fresh joy at every step. Home 
missionary churches become self-sustaining, and their 
pastors find themselves in a developed country, with 
the fruits of their labors about them. The frontier 
fields of a quarter of a century ago are now in the 
heart of the country ; and those who entered them 
with the feeling that they were going so far away as 
scarcely ever tO' be heard from, find that they were 
striking for the very centers of position and power. 
This, however, was by the direction of God's wisdom, 
not theirs. In all this there is great gain. He who 
labors from year to year with an Eastern church, that, 
by dint of hard work, simply holds its own, is doing a 
good work. He who in faithfulness stands by a waning 
church, whose young people are all leaving, renders 
a noble and self-sacrificing service. In each case 
there is faith and heroism ; but, if God will, it is 



3 76 THE lOJVA BAND 

pleasanter to see results accomplished, to feel the 
throb of enterprise and progress around us, and to 
see new forces fast accumulating-, through which the 
little we do shall tell for good in the ages to come. 
In this is our special gain. 

Some may dislike, possibly, the first relations in 
which, so far as our denomination is concerned, the 
process just alluded to in this Western country is 
generally begun — the relations of a home missionary 
in connection with a little home missionary church 
or some new place yet churchless. lUit is there not 
something good, yea, noble, even in this? When one 
thinks of the prayers offered for home missionaries, 
is it not good to be one of them? When one thinks 
of the Christian donors who give so freely for home 
missions at the W>st, is it not good to be an almoner 
of their bounties? When one thinks of what it is to 
plant and foster a Christian church in a new country, 
he may well rejoice in the work, and gladly accept the 
relations in which so many are coworkers with him. 
Bringing his little church, by the blessing of God, up 
to self-support, he may well feel that his work, though 
humble, is yet a great and good one. He who, on 
mission ground, has done it once, twice or thrice, is 
an honored servant in the kingdom of Christ. Sur- 
veying thus the past, we claim no honor, no great- 
ness, but bless God for opening before us a field in 
relation to which, as we balance the loss and the gain 
as compared with fields that might have been found 



LOSS AND GAIN 1 77 

nearer our Eastern homes, we are constrained to say, 
No loss : especially gain !" 

Were youth renewed with our past experience, we 
are quite sure, if allowed of God, we would strike for 
some new field, only careful that it were small enough 
for us at the nrst, and then to grow. 

" The experience and observation of after years emphasize the truth of this 
chapter also. 



CHAPTER XIX 

IX MllMORIAM 

HIl'HERTO my life has been preparatory. I 
want to live : yes, when I think what God will 
do for Iowa in the next twenty years I want to live and 
be an actor in it." Thus exclaimed one who came here 
to labor in the ardor of youth, but was early called 
to die. 

Looking back through our quarter of a century, 
we recall others who also have fallen by the way. It 
is due to them, and meet for us, that they should have 
a place in these reminiscences. The names of all, of 
course, cannot appear ; only such as stand freshest in 
mind as w^e take our backward look. 

The words quoted at the opening of this chapter 
were those of the one first taken, and he from the 
Band. This was Horace Hutchinson. He died at 
Burlington, March 7, 1846. He w-as a native of Sut- 
ton, Massachusetts, a graduate of Amherst College 
in 1839, and of Andover Seminary in 1843. His dis- 
ease was hereditary consumption, against which he 
had been struggling for years. Not quite thirty years 
of age, having been permitted but little over two years 
to prosecute his Master's work, to which he had be- 
178 



IN MEMORLIM 



179 



come ardently attached, and for which, by his natural 
enthusiasm and richness uf intellectual culture, no less 
than his culture of heart, he was eminently fitted, and 
just settled most happily in his domestic relations, — - 
it was no w^onder that he felt that he was just ready to 
live, and wanted to live ; that it was hard to die. Yet 
he was cheerful, resigned and ready. His end was 
peace. 

What a breach was made in our ranjvs, not only as 
we missed the light of his cheerful face, and the 
warmth of his genial nature, but felt that, in all plans 
for Iowa, the benefit of his sound judgment and hearty 
aid, on wdiich w^e had begun to rely, w^ere so soon re- 
moved ! How, by this early death among us, was 
our work more seriously and devoutly apprehended ! 
How keen was our sympathy with her who was thus 
early called to exchange bridal robes for weeds of 
mourning! Though removing soon after from the 
territory, and entering into new relations in a neigh- 
boring state, she was still reckoned as one of us. Mrs. 
Hutchinson, for a time Principal of Abbott Female 
Seminary at Andover, Massachusetts, was subse- 
quently married to the Rev. S. J. Humphrey, April 18, 
1854, and died at Newark, Ohio, August 18, i860. 
She was born at Grafton, Massachusetts, Feb. 20, 1823. 
Thus, by that first death, did God teach that there 
were paths of sorrow for us tO' tread, as well as of 
hope, success and joy. The lesson has been again and 
again repeated. It will be pardoned, perhaps, if w^e 



l8o THE IOWA BAND 

follow these providences first in reference to the 
Band. 

Four years passed away before the second came. 
Eliza C. Robbins died at Muscatine, July 16, 1850. 
She was a native of Canterbury, Connecticut; born 
June 7, 1819; was married Sept. 27, 1843, arid started 
in a few days as one of the only two wives in that first 
journey westward. Her lot, as has been told, was 
cast in what was then called Bloomington, now Mus- 
catine. She accepted it heartily. With natural over- 
flow of good feeling, and a happy turn in all circum- 
stances, she easily accommodated herself to the num- 
berless annoyances and discomforts of a new country. 
In no home were the bachelor brethren more welcome 
than in hers. Putting everybody at ease in her pres- 
ence, she won rapidly upon the hearts of the people. 
For seven swift years did she act her part, singing 
as she went, with a joyous heart ; and then her work 
was suddenly ended. The cholera, that for a summer 
or two raged on the river, seized her as a victim, and 
in a few hours she was dead. Behind her were left a 
stricken husband, three little children, a bereaved 
people, and many mourning friends, — mourning, yet 
comforted ; for a cheerful light plays about the sadness 
of that hour as they remember how she passed away 
in the strength of that beautiful psalm, ''The Lord is 
my shepherd," which was read to her by a kind Chris- 
tian friend in the moments while she was still con- 
scious, but unable to speak. 



IN MEMORIAM l8i 

Two years later, a third bereavement came. In this 
case, too, a wife was taken. Sarah E. Hill died May 
21, 1852. She was born in Bath, Maine, Aug. 8, 1823, 
and was, therefore, twenty-nine years of age. As a 
worker, she was confined to a few short years ; but 
they were years filled with the glowing enthusiasm of 
an ardent soul. Entering with zeal on the mission 
work, she attached herself at once to every thing in 
Iowa. All the brethren, all the sisters, all the churches, 
everything in and about her adopted state was hers. 
Into every plan and method of mission labor she 
threw her whole soul. The college, now in its pros- 
perity, is the result, in part, of her faith and her gifts. 
It is not strange that to-day her two sons, as Chris- 
tian young men, are on the list of its students ; for, 
in their infancy, she gave them heartily and believ- 
ingly to the Lord. After the labors of eight years, — 
some of them at frontier points, where mission work 
meant hardship and privation — she has found her 
grave on the. banks of the Mississippi. Summer by 
summer there are those passing up and down the river 
who are wont to think, "There on those beautiful 
bluffs was our sister buried." How soon all such trav- 
elers shall cease ! 

A few more years, and God spake, again; this time, 
also, by the removal of a wife and sister. As her name 
is written, all who knew her will remember her quiet, 
gentle ways, the sweetness of her disposition, the 
steadv, humble traits of her Christian character. Nat- 



l82 THE IOWA BAND 

iirally retiring", she found her province and her sway 
chiefly in the reahiis of domestic hfe, and yet won es- 
teem and influence in wider circles. It was with ap- 
prehension that we saw^ the paleness of her cheek, 
amid the devotion of a wnfe and the cares of a mother ; 
but w-e feel now- that it w^as meet that a spirit like hers 
should be taken to a better w^orld. Harriet R. Ripley 
was born at Drakesville. New^ Jersey, Sept. 13, 1S20, 
and died at Davenport, April 4, 1857, at the age of 
thirty-seven. 

It remains for one more lesson to be noted. This 
time it is the death of a brother ; bringing us down to 
March 31, 1867. Then died, in Ottumwa, B. A. 
Spaulding, the second of the Band now deceased. He 
was truly a man of God. Possessed of more intellect- 
ual worth than it was his ambition to show^ his aim 
was, in a frontier field, in the true home missionary 
spirit, to lay foundations for Christ. This he did in 
manv a heart and in many a place. At the first, his 
w^as preeminently the work of an evangelist. Travel- 
ing on horseback over the New Purchase, he had 
twenty-five or thirty different places of meeting, some 
of them a hundred miles apart ; preaching In groves 
and cabins, and organizing churches, where, ten years 
before, had been the Indian dance. For years he toiled 
thus, till, in due time, it w^as his privilege to see the 
heaven-pointing spires, to hear church-going bells, 
and to welcome newi laborers in that at first wild and 
uncultivated region. 



IN MEMORIAM 183 

It was in these years that he subsequently declared 
that he had more joys, amid greater hardships, than 
at any other period of his life. Gradually his labors 
were contracted within narrower limits, till he be- 
came the pastor of the church in the place he at first 
selected as his home, and where he died. It was his 
privilege to be an actor in the twenty years for which 
Brother Hutchinson longed ; and yet he was not sat- 
isfied. His disease, too, was consumption ; and, as it 
began to be apparent that he must yield to it, his 
words were, "Oh, to do more for Jesus ! Oh, for ten 
years to live, and do something for Christ !" But his 
work was done ; and he was resigned, as, on a Satur- 
day night, the death-shades gathered thick about him. 
''Is this the dark valley?" he inquired. Being told 
that it was, "It will not be long," he said. "Will it 
last till morning?" It did last till morning. At the 
Sabbath dawn he passed up to the day of rest. He 
was born in Billerica, Massachusetts, July 20, 1815; 
was a graduate of Harvard College and Andover 
Seminary. Dying March 31, 1867, he was fifty-two 
years of age. He left a wife and one child. 

We have now noticed where a husband or a wife 
has, in repeated instances, been taken. Meanwhile, 
children have been born, and children, too, have died ; 
but of them we cannot speak in detail. We must be 
content with this bare recognition of God's chastening 
hand in their removal. Changes have been going on 
outside the Band, A few names will be given, such 



184 



THE IOWA BAND 



as are freshest in the mind of the writer. In other 
minds, doubtless, there are other names not given, 
just as fresh and just as worthy of mention as those 
that will appear. 

First, as intimately associated with that of Mrs. 
Hill, because near as to time and place, was the 
death of Brother Thompson. William A. Thompson 
died May 3, 1852. All who were in the state at that 
time remember the mystery that shrouded this calam- 
ity. Judging from his intentions when he left home, 
and the position of his horse and buggy when found, 
it was thought that he must have been drowned in at- 
tempting to row a frail skifT across an arm of the Mis- 
sissippi, in high water and a boisterous wind. There 
were suspicions of foul play, but they were not re- 
garded as well founded. For weeks search was made 
for his body in vain. Standing by the newly-made 
grave of our sister, upon the bluffs overlooking the 
waters of the Mississippi, the thought was, "There, 
somewhere, is the grave of our brother." Tlie follow- 
ing June, as the brethren w^ere holding their annual 
Association at Muscatine, a few were walking, at a 
leisure hour, by the river's side, when a human body 
was seen floating towards the bank. Was it, could it 
be, that of their brother? This was the question that 
flashed on their minds. It soon appeared almost to a 
certainty that it was even sO' ; yet to identify the body 
was difificult. Of the signs, they were not absolutely 
sure. A garment sent to the anxious, wearv wife es- 



JX MliMOKlAM 185 

tablished the fact. Thus, sixty miles below where the 
sad accident occurred, God brought to us the consola- 
tion that at least the body of our brother had been 
found. We 1)uried it in the same ground where was 
buried the first sister taken. Brother Thompson was 
a good man, humble, earnest and prayerful. Enter- 
ing the state at the same time with the brethren of the 
Band, he was reckoned as one of them. His loss was 
deeply felt by all. 

Those here in the autumn of 1853 remember the joy 
occasioned by the arrival of two young men, appar- 
ently in the vigor of life, directly from their seminary 
studies. Mysterious has always seemed their fate. 
One of them, as he entered his field, seemed to labor 
as with the blessing of God on him — a young man of 
rare mental and social qualities and ardent piety. 
How astounding was the news of his sudden illness 
and death ! Strong were the sympathies that his 
young wife carried back with her to her Eastern 
home. The brother here referred to was E. C. A. 
Woods, who died at Wapello, Nov. 4, 1854. Born in 
Newport, New Hampshire, September, 1824, he was 
thirty years of age. , 

The other was Oliver Dimon, who went to Keosau- 
qua. By his excellences he won the affections of his 
people. But disease was on him, and he soon be- 
came prostrated and was carried back to his Eastern 
home to die. 

Similar to these cases was that of another, who had 



1 86 THE IOWA BAND 

been trained among us. Joseph Bloomer was con- 
verted in one of our churches, at one time a member of 
our college, though he graduated at Amherst in 1856. 
From the first, so eager was he to be in the field, that 
he could not wait the usual course of study. It was 
well, perhaps, in his case, as one destined to early 
death, that he did not. He went to McGregor late in 
1857. His labors were limited to a few brief months; 
but they were months of much zeal and great promise. 
The people felt the power of an earnest preacher 
among them. "Sharper sermons," said one, 'T never 
heard than fell from his lips. I do not know, but, 
under God, he would have converted the whole town 
had he Hved." He died suddenly, Feb. 21, 1858. 

Another called from his work on earth was L. R. 
White. He, too, was a young man ; though he was 
permitted to labor several years among us, — first at 
Le Claire, then at Summit and then at Brighton. At 
Le Claire, with great labor, he secured the erection of 
a house of worship. Many a one knov/s the toil re- 
corded in that brief sentence. At Brighton he did the 
same thing. The sad fact in our memories is that the 
first gathering held in the new meeting-house was that 
convened at his funeral. His death was occasioned by 
a cold, together with over-exertion in his eiTorts to 
secure the completion of the house at a given time. 
He wrought, as many another missionary has done, 
with his own hands. He died at Brighton, May 30, 

1858. 



IN MIIMORIAM 187 

Later down, a father in the ministry was taken. Al- 
fred Wright died at Diirango, Nov. 8, 1865. Few 
who ever knew him will soon forget the inward grace 
that shone out on his cheerful face. So, also, we think 
of French, Waters, JNIather, Brown, Leonard, and 
others. 

Meanwliile, sisters were also passing away. There 
vvas one under whose roof, in the earlier years, we 
used always to find a hearty welcome, and whose calm 
trust and cheerful endurance preached us many a ser- 
mon ; who, after years of suffering, died in the trium- 
phant hope of joys to come. This was Mrs. Emer- 
son, She closed her life at Sabula, January, 1856. 

A few months earlier, one who had recently come 
among us, and was just entering joyously into our 
Iowa work, was called to the higher service of heaven. 
Mrs. Sarah W. Guernsey died at Dubuque, May 10, 
1855. Her remains rest in the old burial-ground at 
New Haven, Conn. Pleasant memories of her and 
her Christian activities will long linger with those who 
then composed her husband's flock. 

Another was Mrs. Abbey A. Magoun, a sister of 
Mrs. Hill. Of gentle nature, she was firm in the serv- 
ice of Christ. As a Christian woman, a mother, and 
a pastor's wife, she adorned her calling and station. 
She, too, sleeps on the banks of our beautiful river. 
Her death was at Lyons, Feb. 10, 1864. 

We must speak of another, who, a little later, died 
at Durant, Dec. 7, 1866,— Mrs. Mary F. Bullen. We 



l88 THE IOWA BAND 

could not, if we would, efface from our minds the 
sweetness of the expression she wore. Not even by 
death's cold touch shall it be marred. We well re- 
member it, as turned to a heavenly smile. 

There are memories, too, of dear brethren of the 
churches — of the hospitable Edwards ; the venerable 
Cotton, a lineal descendant of old John Cotton of Bos- 
ton ; of Father \'incent, who. at one of our meetings, 
said the brethren were all daguerreotyped on his 
mind ; of brethren, too, at the East, who in heart have 
been with us and of us, such as Mackintire, Carter, and 
others. How many come to mind, who to-day are 
with the multitude around the throne ; who rest from 
their labors, and their works do follow them ! 

In the summer of 1863, during the Associational 
Meeting at Burlington, a few of the brethren, with 
their wives, went out to the grave of their Brother 
Hutchinson. Gathering around it, with uncovered 
heads, they bowed in prayer to God that the mantle 
of all that was excellent in him might fall upon them. 

As we linger thus among the memories of the de- 
parted, may all that was noble in their lives and ex- 
cellent in their characters be with us that remain, to 
stimulate and to cheer, till our race, too, shall be run, 
and we shall be reckoned with them ! 

Since the foregoing was written, and while this 
work is going through the press, another name is to 
be added to those of the Band who have gone. Eras- 



IN MRMORIAM 189 

tus Ripley died Fel3. 21, 1870, in Soniers. Connecticut, 
age fifty-five. He was l^orn in Coventry, Connecticut, 
March 15, A.D. 1815; was a graduate of L^nion Col- 
lege; also of Andover Seminary, in the class of 1843. 
Elected as resident licentiate, he remained at Andover 
till the spring of 1844, when he joined his classmates 
in Iowa, taking charge of the church in Bentonsport. 
He remained at this place till the summer of 1848, 
when he was chosen the first professor of Iowa Col- 
lege at Davenport. From this time he was identified 
with the interests of the college ; at first the only, 
afterwards associate, teacher, as Carter Professor of 
Ancient Languages, until the time of its removal to 
Grinnell in 1859. Shortly after this he returned to his 
native state, where, until his death, he was engaged 
in the profession of teaching, in which he took a high 
rank. Mr. Ripley's leading powers were those of a 
linguist. He was a good preacher, an enthusiastic 
teacher, and sought to lay all on the altar for Christ. 
His work is done, and he, too, has passed away. 



CHAPTER XX 

IX MEMORIAM, COXTIXl'ED FROM 1S70 TO 1902 

IN the early years of Iowa the workers were few and 
comparatively young. A grey head in any congre- 
gation was a rare sight. Deaths were comparatively 
few, but, as workers increased with increasing years, 
they became more frequent, till now, in the thirty-one 
years past, the list is a long one. Of these mention 
can be made of but few. Naturally, it will be of the 
old pioneers before the Band. Of these there were 
seven : Turner, Reed, Gaylord, Burnham, Hitchcock, 
Emerson and Holbrook. They have all passed away. 
The first called was Rev. Reuben Gaylord, wdio died 
January 10, 1880, at the age of sixty-eight, at Fon- 
tanelle, Nebraska ; a man who, from his youth, always 
had visions, and was never disobedient to them, of a 
glorious work to be done by planting Christian 
churches and Christian institutions in the opening 
West. He was the second of our pastors, and over 
the second of our churches formed, that at Danville, 
now Hartford. For seventeen years he labored with 
us, then, listening to a Macedonian cry from Ne- 
braska, he went to Omaha. In a faithful pastorate 
there and wise labors as Home Missionary Super- 
190 



y.v MiiMORi.iM. coxTixriin 191 

iiitendent, he l)uill liiiiiSL-lf into the rising founda- 
tions of that new state. He sleeps on the banks of 
the Missouri. Four years later, on Xoveniber 10, 
1883, Rev. Oliver Emerson was called. He was born 
in Lynnfield, Alassachusetts. Alarch 26, 1813, making 
fiim at death seventy years of age. Of a weak body, 
one-half of which w-as paralyzed at birth, one foot de- 
formed, never taking a step w'ithout pain, never seeing 
a well day, with little prospect that the days of man 
hood would ever be reached, at the age of fifteen he 
\\as a student at Phillips Academy, Andover, Mas- 
sachusetts. In 1835 he graduated at Waterville, 
Maine. Then came two years of sickness. For a sec- 
ond time he had sought his home, probably to die, 
with great sorrow that he might never be able to 
preach. For three days he fasted and prayed that 
God w^ould in some way show^ if it could be. His 
convictions w^ere such that he soon started for Lane 
Seminary, where he graduated June 10, 1840. On the 
same day, unable to pay cabin fare, he took deck pas- 
sage on a steamer for Davenport, Iowa, where in ten 
days he landed, an entire stranger, wath a scanty ward- 
robe and depleted purse. He came as a Baptist, hold- 
ing open conmiunion views, but hoping to preach in 
that connection. He w^as disappointed in this, yet he 
began at once to preach. So fervent was he in spirit, 
his sermons so clear, logical and impassioned, that 
he was welcomed everywhere. With a hearty welcome, 
also, he was received into our Association, as one 



192 



THE IOWA BAND 



whose great business it was to preach Christ and him 
crucified, and not to be a disturber on minor points. 
He labored in this connection most happily. For 
forty years was he "a voice crying in the wilderness," 
seeking out the new settlements, a genuine frontiers- 
man. He had his appointments always on the Sab- 
bath, often on weekday evenings, gathering the peo- 
ple, now in schoolhouses, and now in their own dwell- 
ings. As circumstances demanded, he gave attention 
to the erection of houses of worship and the forming 
of churches. Twenty or twenty-five of these remain as 
the fruits of his labor. His voice was hushed, but his 
memory remains. Go to any old person who knew 
him in his prime, tell him you knew Father Emerson, 
and his eye will kindle. 

It is now but a step from '84 to '85 which brings us 
to the death of Rev. Asa Turner. We called him 
Father Turner, because he was as a father to us all, 
and the father, too, of Congregationalism in Iowa. 
It was a lecture of his, in a hill town of New Hamp- 
shire, more than half a century since, on "The Advan-- 
tages of Western Farming," that led to the early col- 
onizing of Denmark, Lee County. When in 1838 our 
church was organized there, he was invited to be- 
come its pastor, and accepted. There he continued 
for nearly forty years, a common-sense evangelistic 
preacher. As pastor, he was a true shepherd of his 
flock, while he was also helpful everywhere and inter- 
ested everyw^here in whatever pertained to the mat- 



IX MRMORIAM. CONTINUED 193 

ters of the Kingdom, in the new territory. He was 
everywhere welcome for his genial spirit in the homes 
of the people, among brother ministers, in associations 
and public meetings, bearing with him an atmosphere 
of influence among all. But the time came for his 
labors to be laid aside. There were a few years of 
rest, first with a daughter in California, afterwards 
with another daughter in Oskaloosa, where, in the 
confinement of his sick chamber, he waited in confi- 
dence in his divine Redeemer for the summons to go 
up higher. They came June 11, 1886, at the age of 
eighty-six years and six months. So he was laid to 
rest as a shock of corn fully ripe. 

The next to depart was Rev. Julius A. Reed. He 
was the third to come, and took charge of the third 
church, the one organized at Fairfield. In a few years, 
when an agent of the Missionary Society was de- 
manded, he was the man chosen, and well chosen. 
Of pleasing address, a good scholar, accurate and log- 
ical in thought, clear and concise in expression, he 
interested the people in and out of the pulpit. Faith- 
fully he explored the field, now on horseback, more 
generally in his buggy, high and lifted up, made ex- 
pressly for fording rivers before the bridges w^ere 
built. His good judgment as to strategic points, and 
good business habits in the forming of churches where 
the aid of councils and Christian helpers could not be 
had, were of great value in the early days. In the 
early ])lanting and growth of the college, too, he was 



1^4 ^HE IOWA BAND 

one of the foremost actors. So he did his part well. 
But there was one thing, for which he was peculiarly 
fitted, that he did not do. He had an observant eye 
and a retentive memory. No one could have written 
a more truthful account of the early years than he 
But he failed to do it. There was considerable ma- 
terial for this which he had collected, valuable papers 
and statistics, carefully prepared. But for him the 
end came. It was at Davenport, at the home of a 
daughter, Mrs. S. F. Smith, that he died. 

As we bore him away to his resting-place, it was 
gladness to think of a life well spent, sorrowful that 
we should see his face no- more, and sad to think that 
with him we committed so much history to the grave. 
He was born January 16, 1809, and died Aug. 2y, 
1890, aged eighty-one. 

The next called were Brothers Burnham and Hitch- 
cock. Mr. Burnham, though here at the coming ol 
the Band, soon returned to his native state, New 
Hampshire. He was a graduate of Dartmouth, and 
a conscientious Christian man, and died at Townsend, 
Vermont, in 1883. 

Mr. Hitchcock, too, soon after the coming of the 
Band, exchanged his field of labor at Davenport for 
one across the river at Moline, Illinois. The church 
there, with some others along the eastern bank of the 
Mississippi, being for some years attached to our As- 
sociation in Iowa, he continued for a while a coworker 
with us, doing valiant work, especially in the causes 



IX MliMORI.lM. CONTINUED 



195 



of anti-slavery and temperance. But ere long he be- 
came fully identified with the growing interests of 
the Kingdom in western Illinois. He labored on to 
his end. His sleeping-place is on the western bank 
of the great river, he having died at Moline, Decem- 
ber 15, 1873, fifty-eight years old. 

To this list one more name is to be added, that of 
Rev. John C. Holbrook, the last of the seven to go. 
His life was an eventful one. Inheriting in Brattle- 
boro, A'ermont, his native place, an extensive busi- 
ness, it did not succeed. Coming west, it was first 
farming, then teaching, but disappointment in both. 
Being sent by Rev. Stephen Feet, Home Missionary 
Agent in Wisconsin, to spend a Sabbath with the then 
little church at Dubuque, the brethren were at once in- 
1 crested in him, and engaged him to be their preacher. 
Application for licensure soon followed and was 
granted. At once it was evident that he had found 
his calling. With earnestness, zeal and power he be- 
gan and for years continued as a revival preacher. 
Under his preaching revival succeeded revival, not 
only in his own church but in settlements around. 
His church grew and, partaking somewhat of his 
spirit, became a tower of strength among the churches 
of northern Iowa. Ere long he was called to other 
fields and to work too well known to be here re- 
hearsed. He loved Iowa and Iowa loved him. His 
closing years were on the western coast. In his ripe 
old age his last days were in the home of a daughter 



196 THE lOJJ'A BAND 

in Stockton, California, where in his ninety-fifth year 
he died, Aug. 1, 1900. 

So in passing do we pay a tribute to the older, the 
true pioneers here. It is for the writer a pleasure so 
to do. The coming of the Band at the time was a 
movement that naturally caught the attention of the 
public and many things have been ascribed to them 
rightfully belonging as much to those into whose 
labors they entered, and whose spirit was ever with 
them. If these words shall help to give them their 
true place in the history of our churches, it is but a 
duty done that gives pleasure. 

And now we turn again to the Band. From 1843 
to 1870, the period covered by the memorial chapter 
of the first edition, but three were taken, Hutchinson, 
Spaulding and Ripley. In the period from 1870 to 
1 90 1, all but two have passed the river. The first to 
be recorded is that of Rev. James J. Hill. He was a 
native of Maine and a graduate of Bowdoin. On 
account of the sickness and death of his father, he 
could not come wath his brethren in 1843, but he fol- 
lowed the next spring, locating at Jacksonville, now 
Garnavillo, Clayton County. This, at the time, was 
the extreme northern limit of settlement, in a region 
where it used to be said that the staple provisions 
were corn dodgers, bear's meat and wild honey. 
There he built a house. There he led the people in 
the building of a church. There were born to him 
and his young wife, also from Maine, his two sons. 



IX MHMORIAM, COXT/Xri^P 197 

known as the Hill boys. Gershom and James. He 
labored in many plaees as an evangelist,'' ori^anizini^ 
churches, and also at such points as Savannah, Illi- 
nois, Glencoe, Minnesota, and Fayette, Iowa, wdiere 
in one or tw^o cases memorial windows have been sup- 
plied in grateful recollection of his ministry. 

These labors w^ere mostly in central and* northern 
Iowa, but sometimes in adjacent counties in Illinois 
and in southern Minnesota.*^ His last labors were in 
Fayette, Iowa, wdiere, .after an illness of a year, he 
died Oct. 29, 1870, at the age of fifty-five, leaving a 
second wife and family. His two sons, already re- 
ferred tO', laid him away at Grinnell. The remains of 
their mother, the wife of his youth, they also removed 
from the bank of the Mississippi to rest by his side. 

The next name to be dropped from the roll of th? 
living was Rev. Daniel Lane. Like Mr. Hill, he was 
a native of Maine and a graduate of Bowdoin. He 
■was the man who first said, "Well, I am going to 
low^a ; w^hether anybody else goes or not, I am going." 
So he always decided like questions, independently for 
himself, with his God. His decisions made, he was 
always careful as to what he said and did. "There," 

*^' Twenty-five years after his death, one of his sons being present at t'^e 
Sunday Morning Service, November 24, i8q^, in th-^ Congregational Church 
in Toledo, Iowa— observed in the choir one of the members of the leading firm 
of lawyers in Tama Co , "wh© said to the visitor, "Your father labored in a re- 
vival here. By him I was led to the Saviour. Except for his faithful work here 
I probably should not have been in that choir this morning." 

4« He was called upon to officiate nt the fir^t service of Plymouth Church, 
St. Paul, in Concert Hall on. Third Street, May 16, 1S5S. 



198 THE IOWA BAND 

said one in a company of brother ministers, "there is 
the only perfect man I ever knew." As a God-fearing 
man there was in his very presence a rebuke of sin. 
^'I always feel like hiding," said a frequenter of 
saloons, "when I see Mr. Lane coming along the 
street." His first and main pastoral work was at 
Keosauqua for some years, till at the solicitation of 
his brethren he left that field to become a teacher in 
the college in which and for which he did noble work. 
There was something in him or about him that won 
the esteem of all wath whom he had to do, whether as 
pastor or teacher. When in after years the church at 
Keosauqua built a new house of worship, a memorial 
window was evidence of the abiding esteem for the 
first pastor. Where you find an old pupil of his there 
you will hear a tribute of praise to his memory. Being 
dead he yet speaketh. His influence among his breth- 
ren at Associations and among the churches can easily 
be imagined. Afflicted with increasing deafness, he 
gave up both teaching and preaching some years be- 
fore his death, the last of which were spent near his 
Eastern home. Almost up to the time of his death 
he had a class in the Sabbath-school and conducted a 
,veekly prayer-meeting of neighbors at his home, 
which was some distance from the village church. So 
at last the end came. It was at Freeport, Maine, the 
third of April, 1890, at the age of seventy-seven. But 
a few weeks since, April 18, 1900, his devoted wife 
was laid by his side. Having loved Iowa in their 



IN MEMORIAM. COXTINUED 199 

youth, their chosen field of labor, they loved her to 
the end. 

But four months after, he was followed by Brother 
E. B. Turner. Of an adventurous spirit, with a love 
of the West, after three years of student life at Jack- 
sonville, Illinois, and having a purpose already formed 
to go west somewhere, he readily came into the plans 
of the Band, to whom his own experiences were at 
once of great value. He began labor here in Jones 
and adjacent counties. These contained the most 
northern settlements in the territory and the farthest 
to the northwest of the United States. In the years 
spent there he shared the hardships and exposures of 
the earlier settlers ; they dreamed not of the con- 
veniences of modern times. Here was the sum of 
his Iowa labors. After a faithful and successful pas- 
torate at Morris, Illinois, he was called at the close of 
the rebellion to be Superintendent of Home Missions 
in Missouri. There were twelve years of arduous toil 
in this capacity, then followed a few more of mis- 
sionary labors in New York state, and then came the 
evening of life, in Owego, where he died, the 6th of 
July, 1895, at the age of eighty-three. By his side 
was laid his wife, October 26, 1896. 

From 1890 to 1896 there is no more break. In the 
latter year two were taken. First came the depart- 
ure of Harvey Adams. He was the oldest of the 
Band. His first field was Farmington, near the Abner 
Kneeland colony, once noted, but now scarcely 



200 THE IOWA BAND 

known. He was the only one who in a busy pastorate 
and in labors peculiar to early Western life kept up a 
critical study of the Scriptures in the original lan- 
guages. He was also a great reader of the Bible in 
the English. He read it in course, how many times 
through is not known. After the close of his active 
labors, it was once fifteen times in one year ; in an- 
other, fourteen. His last pastorate was at New 
Hampton, where also he was pastor emeritus. Al- 
ways, while strength Was given him, he was a con- 
stant attendant at church, always having a seat in the 
pulpit and generally making a prayer in the course of 
the exercises. So he went on to the end which came 
September 23, 1896, when he was eighty-seven years 
old. 

Three months after this came the death of Brother 
Robbins, December 27, 1896, at the age of seventy- 
nine years, ten months and five days. Then the places 
that knew him were to know him no more. His place 
in a church and in a city where for half a century he 
had gone in and out as a preacher of righteousness, 
where by his long ministrations and intimate connec- 
tions with the life of the people he had come to be 
almost a pastor of all, that place by his death was now 
vacant. That place also was made vacant in the 
board of college trustees, where he was last of its 
first corporate members to be taken save one. In like 
manner, also, in our seminary at Chicago, as well as 
the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign 



IN MEMORIAM, COXTINUED 201 

Missions, was there a vacancy never to be really filled. 
There were, moreover, other positions, other works 
of a public character, but the grave had taken him 
from them all. 

On the list we are now considering but one name 
remains, that of Ebenezer Alden. He came in 1843 
and for five years was at Tipton, Cedar County, the 
"one in whom all the people believed." Domestic re- 
lations were the cause of his return to the E^st, where 
he soon found a pastorate at Marshfield, Massachu- 
setts, which he filled through his active Christian life. 
He died suddenly, January 4, 1889, aged eighty, hav- 
ing loved and loving Iowa to the end and his Iowa 
brethren loving him. 

And now, what of those fellow workers who in these 
later years have been dropping from the ranks? 
Here, as we turn our thoughts backward, they pass 
before us a long procession, among them those as 
under-shepherds faithfully feeding their flocks, till, 
under the weight of years, they took the name of 
Father — as, Father Tenney, Hurlburt, Taylor, Todd, 
Windsor, Here are the names of Coleman and Up- 
ton, whose end came on the Pacific shore ; of Little, 
once a foreign, afterwards a home missionary ; of 
Gibbs, Avery, Allen ; of Bingham, also, not so fatherly 
as some because in old age so young. Then there were 
others, not so far along in life as to take the name of 
Father, but "'^called" in their strength, before the de- 
clining years had come ; as Guernsey, Thatcher, Hoyt, 



202 THE IOWA BAND 

Woodworth, Brintnall, and Bennett the teaclier and 
preacher whose last labors were in Nebraska ; and 
some cut down in the prime of life ; as D wight, 
Pickett, Sloan, Berry and Byres ; and, yoimger still, 
June and Magoun. And names of devoted men, 
pillars in their church, how they multiply ! Fox, 
Brown, Shedd, Epps, pioneer settlers of Denmark ; 
Beardsley and Hedge, of Burlington ; Rogers and 
Wright, tlie ever faithful in Mitchell association ; Gas- 
ton, also, whose soul and money went into the found- 
ing of Tabor College, and — but who can give the 
names of the good, strong men of our churches who 
have passed away ? And there are godly women, too, 
on whose counsels and prayers the life of churches 
hung, women of missionary zeal, whose spirits yet 
live — Edwards, Lassie, Riggs, Magoim, Parker, 
Daniels, Estes, Hillis. But here, again, who but the 
recording angel can tell what woman hath done in 
quiet, silent ways, never published to the world? 

Thus are recorded a few names that come to mind. 
Many, many others there are just as worthy of men- 
tion, but what one memory can contain them all? 

The wonderful developments of our state have been, 
and are yet to be, in three great lines : the physical, 
the educatio'ual, the moral and religious. Rich and 
enriching are the lives in harmony with and helpful 
in each. They are the lives that tend toward the cul- 
mination of all, the glory of God, in the well-being of 
rnan i|i a world ever growing more and more beaiiti- 



IN MEMORIAM, CONTINUED 203 

fill, preparatory all, as desig-ned 1)y Him, for the glo- 
ries of the next. 

They who have gone before us, whose lives in part 
have been with ours, are sleeping now ; some, the 
most of them, in their Iowa graves ; some scattered 
elsewhere. But blessed are the dead that die in the 
Lord. They rest from their labors, and their works 
follow them. 



• "One by one 

Their work well done 

They disappear : 

Each veteran pioneer. 
Responding to the mandate of his Lord. 
Ascends to meet a rich reward, 
Translated to a brighter realm, a higher sphere." 



CHAPTER XXI 

OUTLOOK AND CONCLUSION 

THUS have we cast our thoiights backward. For 
a moment we have held this fair land in view, 
as, but a few years ago, its forests, its prairies, its 
rivers, were vast solitudes of Nature's richness and 
beauty, which for centuries had waited the magic 
touch of civilized life. Here, with the thronging thou- 
sands, have the lives of those of us that have been in 
Iowa for the last three, five, ten, twenty, or thirty 
years, entered in. 

By these reminiscences, in the changes wrought, 
have we been led to think of our individual work and 
associated labors. We have thought, too, — and per- 
haps, in passing, have shed the tear of affection as 
we have thought — of those who entered with us, and 
have fallen by the way. In the midst of the serious 
and the sad, there has been much to encourage and 
rejoice. We have not labored in vain ; but the end is 
not yet. To the most of us that have been here even 
the longest, life, with somewhat of health and vigor, 
is still spared ; and ^ork yet remains. 

We take not our review as in evening's shade, with 
the armor ofif, awaiting repose ; but as at noontide 



OUTLOOK AND CONCLVSIOX 205 

heat, with the outlook of cleniands, opportunities and 
labors before us of the declining day. And what see 
we here? A mighty state, which as yet even is but 
in the dawn of its development. Of her area of fifty- 
five thousand square miles, there are two-thirds, or 
twenty-five millions of its rich acres that as yet bear 
upon them the native prairie sod. Already the fourth 
state in the Union in the production of some of the 
cereals, what is it yet tO' be? It is only here and there 
that her watercourses, abundant in their privileges, 
have been made to turn the busy wheels of art ; while 
her extensive fields of minerals and coal have but just 
begun to be worked. Her system of railroads — with 
near two thousand miles already in operation, with the 
converging lines meeting on its western border, there 
to unite with the great Pacific — is yet to be completed. 
Then will she lie, as favored of God, on the great high- 
way of the nations, and as central therein. Then by 
her roads and rivers she will send out from and draw 
to herself, as she lists, from the North and the South, 
the East and the West. 

It only remains for a growing population to carry 
out and develop all these resources garnered in her 
bosom. A guarantee for this we have in the record of 
the past. In 1836, the population was ten thousand ; 
in 1846, ninety-seven thousand ; in 1856, five hundred 
and nineteen thousand. Now, in 1870, it is estimated 
at one million and a quarter. How it will stand when 
he who reviews the next quarter-century shall an- 



2o6 THE IOWA BAND 

nounce the figures, a conjecture will not be hazarded. 
Nor as to the scenes of development and progress 
which it will be his privilege to unfold, will any 
prophecy be made. Only this : if by the appliances of 
education, virtue, piety, religion, the tone and vigor 
of the people can be kept up and improved; if her 
schools, colleges, institutions and churches can be 
made to act well their part — the results in this state 
for the country, the world and for God will be glori- 
ous. Here, then, with all others of the good and the 
true, is our work and our labor. If, to any, the sun 
of his day seems to be hanging low, let him do with 
his might what his hand findeth to do. Surely, in 
Iowa even, the mission field is but just entered. 

But let us extend our view. West of us there is al- 
ready a region containing four millions of i)eople, 
where, twenty-five years ago, there were none. Here 
is opening the West of to-day. Here are almost two- 
thirds of our national domain, all organized into states 
or territories, rapidly filling up, but as yet, in the 
main, almost destitute of the institutions of the gospel. 
In Washington Territory, with its seventy thousand 
square miles ; Idaho, with its one hundred thousand ; 
Montana, a third larger still ; Utah, New Mexico, Ari- 
zona, Nevada, none of them smaller than the others, 
some larger, — in all these, the number of the laborers 
of our order can to-day be counted upon one's fingers, 
while that of all other denominations is small. This is 
not from want of people, but because the laborers are 



OIJLOOK .l.\'/> COXCLCSIOX 207 

few. Tlic tide of population from all parts of the 
world stays not, and the work grows. Here, truly, 
our home mission field is almost boundless. Xor is 
this all. The work is far from being complete in the 
states east of us, as well as in our own ; while all over 
the South, the cry, no doubt, will yet be heard, "Come 
and help us also.'' The spectacle before us is almost 
appalling ; it is really so if we gaze long enough to see 
in the character of our people, and the genius of our 
government, the necessity, the absolute necessity, of 
the gospel of Jesus Christ to fuse us as one, to purify 
and preserve. Failing to supply this, our nation fails, 
as becoming efifete and worthless without the preserv- 
ing salt. There are certain notorious facts that may 
well alarm us. Not only is there alarming destitu- 
tion in the newer portions of the country, but there 
is equally alarming indifiference in the older, A fourth 
part of our thirty-seven millions of people are habitual 
neglecters of public worship. Organized efforts are 
made in many quarters to break down the sanctity of 
the Sabbath. Infidelity is rife. The press is in a great 
measure corrupted and corrupting. Profanity, intem- 
perance, corruption, political and financial, are sadly 
prevalent. These influences must be withstood, if our 
country is to l)e safe. The only efificient counteracting 
influence is the gospel. The w-ork of giving it must 
ever be largely a home mission work. Even now, 
with such an outlook before us, we seem to stand only 
at the threshold of the home missionar\' enterprise. 



2o8 THE IOWA BAND 

After looking at the past in what now seems to be 
this Httle field of Iowa, with this glance around and 
before us, reflections of various sorts crowd thick 
upon us. In the utterance of a few will be found our 
conclusion. 

For the Executive Coniniittee and the Secretaries of 
the Society prosecuting this great home zvork: 

It is yours to stand as upon the watch-tower, sur- 
veying the wants of this vast, outspreading field, and 
to make report of the same to the people. It is yours 
to direct the money and the men volunteered for their 
supply, and to report of progress made. You stand 
as at the very center of the whole. Of the responsi- 
bilities of your position, the great trust reposed in you 
by the churches, we have not a word to say. These 
you have well considered, and no one can feel them as 
you can. Nor is it an exhortation to be faithful tTiat 
we presume to ofifer, but simply an All hail ! in your 
great and glorious work ; to join with you in thanks 
to God for his blessing upon it in the past, with a 
hearty Godspeed for you in the future. May enlarged 
wisdom and grace be given you for the enlarged and 
growing wants of the field ! 

For the Donors: 

If you have wasted money anywhere, it is not in this 
work. Here, bread cast upon the waters returns again 
after not many days. Here is a great and growing 



OUTLOOK AND CONCLUSION 209 

want, which, so far as you are concerned, money alone, 
with prayer, can supply. For your money, then, we 
appeal in the name of all that is near, dear and pre- 
cious — in the name of home, country, Christ and 
souls. Fill up the treasury at New York, that, for the 
want of money, this great work stay not. In money 
are the sinews of war. We found it so in the great 
struggle just passed; and how like water w^as it poured 
out ! How selfish, how mean, and how sordid he who 
would hoard it then ! But a greater conflict is now 
raging between the good and the evil, all over the 
land. It is the old warfare of the two kingdoms ; and 
never, in any country, was the conflict sharper than in 
ours now. Never before was such a prize to be lost 
and won. On the one side are the standards of the 
arch-enemy, and many are flocking thereto ; on the 
other is the banner of the cross. That victory may 
perch iipon it, the great thing needed is, that churches, 
mission churches of the Lord Jesus Christ, be planted 
everywhere, out upon the frontiers, up and down the 
land, as outposts, forts and citadels of the fight. Will 
you furnish the means? 

For the young men: 

Men are needed as well as means. You in colleges 
and seminaries, with the ministry in view, and you in 
the churches, that have hearts that can feel and 
tongues to express the things of Jesus, let us speak to 
you. A few young men there are out in these West- 



2IO THE IOWA BAND 

ern fields, who never saw a seminary or college, who 
are successfully feeding the Lord's flocks in the wil- 
derness. Would that we had hundreds, yea, thou- 
sands, of them ! Christian young men in our churches, 
are you, if God will, just as ready to be ministers as 
you are to be engineers, merchants or farmers? You 
that are in colleges and seminaries, are you willing to 
go anywhere to preach Jesus? "Send me," said one 
at the home missionary rooms, more than thirty years 
ago, — "send me to the hardest spot you have."" 
They sent him ; sent him where it was indeed desolate 
and drear. But now, if all is not as the garden of the 
Lord, he can at least look around him and behold the 
mighty things that God has wrought. Young men, 
be not afraid to launch out. There are no waters 
without the steps of Jesus upon them ; and his prom- 
ise, "Lo I am with you alway," reaches unto the ends 
of the earth. 

For our churches, the churches of our beloved Iowa: 
The Lord hath blessed you ; but how much, under 
God, do you owe to the Home Missionary Society ! 
Recognize the debt. Look around you, and see others 
in want. Feel the obligation by every means in your 
power to attain the point of self-support at the earliest 
possible period, and then join in with your helpers to 
be the helpers of others. The time is coming, yea, 
now is, when the churches of the West, in the matter 

*' Rev. R. Kent who was sent to Galena, 111, 



OUTLOOK AX J) COXCLUSION 211 

of the great benevolent objects of the day, must come 
up to the help of the Lord as they have never yet done. 
Let not those of Iowa l)e in the rear. "Freely ye have 
received, freely give." Not of your money only ; of 
your praters and labors also, — the prayers and labors 
of your individual members, in the wise work of win- 
ning souls around you, that each church may indeed 
be a mission church for the field within its reach. By 
Sabbath-schools, teachers sent here and there, by 
neighborhood prayer-meetings, by lay preaching, if 
you choose to call it so, upon the Sabbath, by every 
method within the church and around it, work for 
Jesus. In no other way can our surrounding wants 
be reached. We cannot call for ministers to do all the 
work. They are not to be had ; and, if they were, it 
is better to be workers ourselves. We cannot call 
upon the Home Missionary Society for all the needed 
help. It w^ould be asking for what it has not to give ; 
and, were all the money and men at its command in- 
creased a hundredfold, there are central and promis- 
ing fields in waiting for them all, in the regions 
around and beyond. With a limited supply, the great 
work of the Home Missionary Society must ever be 
to gather up and establish churches. Let but these 
be true to their work, let them be mission churches 
in deed as well as in name, and the system will be 
more complete. Let the churches of Iowa learn the 
lesson, and fill up the work remaining to be done, 
The work can easily be accomplished, 



212 THE IOWA BAND 

For the ininistry of Iowa: 

To you who were on the field prior to 1843, we cede 
the honor of being the pioneers in this blessed work. 
By you, in many respects, were the foundations laid, 
the key-note of the true principles of our Christian 
work and church growth struck. If, after your years 
of watching, waiting, almost despairing, you recog- 
nize it as of God that youthful helpers were sent to 
you, they also recognize it as of him that you were 
here, to be in many respects their light and their 
guide; and, among you, none more than he, who, 
after his fort}' years of service in the gospel ministry, 
has just laid off his pastoral harness. May the Lord 
long spare him to be to us what hitherto^ he has been ! 

Those who have joined us since 1843 will not feel 
that they are excluded in this quarter-century review ; 
for they, too, have been sharers in the work accom- 
plished. Let each be joyous in view of it, according to 
the time and faithfulness given to it. May you, dear 
brethren, as faithful workers for Christ, be true lovers 
of Iowa, even as those who have been longest here ! 

Finally, The Band: 

God hath been gracious to us. Three only has he 
taken by death ; three have been called to other fields 
of labor ; five yet remain. How much longer we are 
to labor here, v^e know not. This we know : it is past 
the noontide, and soon, very soon, the evening shades 
will come. When the setting sun hangs low, God 
grant that we may look back on a day well spent ! 



CHAPTER XXII 

EVENTIDE 

THE review in the preceding chapter was taken 
thirty-one years ago. Then was the noon of 
life, now the sun is near its setting; an hour that in- 
vites not only to rest from labor but to moments of re- 
flection. When Isaac went out to meditate, it was at 
eventide. The author, sitting down at the eventide 
of his life to pen a few reflections for this closing- 
chapter, would meditate, as it were, aloud. Here 
alone, almost wholly alone ; the old workers all gone ; 
of the Band all but two. Brother Salter yet remains, 
the pastor, although with an assistant, of his Burling- 
ton church which a few years since celebrated the 
fiftieth anniversary of his labors among them. He 
was the youngest of the Band and very likely will be 
the last. Ere long, probably, the cane will be his."' 
How sad was the accident on that bright summer 
morning that took from him his beloved wife !*^ Of 
the first wives of the other members of the Band, 
they, also, are gone, all but two. The wife of Brother ^ 
Spaulding still lives at Ottumwa, the scene of their 

*8 Note r6, 

^0 Note 17, 

213 



214 ^^^ IOWA BAND 

early labors. The other is she who is with ine yet. 
Why are zir thus spared, together, the only two per- 
mitted to see a golden wedding day? Of later co- 
workers that have passed away as the years have 
gone, what a list ! As their names are recalled and 
the names, too, of many of the members of the early 
churches, there starts up a face, attitudes are seen, 
tones of voice are heard, but they are no longer here. 
For each one the sun has set. What a large company 
from Iowa is gathered on that brighter shore ! To be 
there when the shades of night have settled over this 
eventide, then to go in the infinite grace of the heav- 
enly Father to join them, is the hope. And yet, while 
the eventide remains, 't is pleasant to think of the 
past. First of all, how God's hand has been in every- 
thing ! As to the Band, its organization, its choice 
of a field, the timeliness of entering it, its prepared- 
ness to be entered, these were not from any human 
foresight or wisdom, but somehow of God. And 
since coming in the inexperience of youth to begin 
here the work of the ministry, in such a country as 
this then was, and continuing in it these many years, 
how evident now that God's care has attended ! 
Twice only have there .been even moments of any- 
thing like homesickness or anxiety. Once in the 
earlier years, in cholera times, when leaving the un- 
kept burying ground, a marshy, weedy place, where 
we had buried one who had been suddenly stricken, 
the thought. Oh, to be taken sick and to die, perhaps. 



EVENTIDE 215 

and buried in such a place as this, far, far away from 
home and kindred ! caused a shudder for a moment ; 
l)ut nothing of the kind has happened. Youth has 
Ixen spared to manhood and manhood to age, even 
to old age of eighty and three. No chills or fever. 
In my preaching days, not a sick one of any kind ; 
every appointment filled except a half dozen or so. 
Surely God's care has been constant. Twice lonely. 
Once in those early years, again, later. As the older 
brethren and those of the Band began to drop ofif and 
new brethren to multiply, there came one day the 
thought of becoming old, of standing almost alone, 
of being among newcomers, unknown, uncared for, 
unnoticed, set aside. This, too, for a moment was 
like a gathering cloud. But it has never been. Age, 
to be sure, but not the other part of it. A great joy 
has it been and one of life's great privileges to 
meet the brethren, especially at Association time. 
Never w^as one anticipated with greater pleasure than 
the one next to be held. So, as a PJand, God has been 
good to us, not only in giving a goodly field, in his 
individual care, but in blessing us in our labors. 
Looking backward upon the past, there is but one un- 
pleasant thought that intrudes. It is that there has 
been such dulness to see and slowness to improve the 
opportunities scattered all along the way. And yet, 
close to this there comes another, that God has used 
even imperfect instruments to his owni glory. And 
this is joy again. Were life to be lived over, this 



2i6 THE IOWA BAND 

would be a good motto — Do the work at hand, do it 
well, and God will open the way. For he hath opened 
it and wrought, most wonderfully wrought. 

Yes, what wonderful changes, how great the prog- 
ress made! Not now in the world abroad, but in 
Iowa! When entered in 1843, it was a wild, Indian 
country, save two narrow strips ; now it is a Christian 
state, covered over with happy homes ; its once 
bridgeless streams, bridged ; in place of bridle paths, 
roads for vehicles of business and pleasure ; railroads, 
too, lacing and interlacing till stations are placed 
within a few miles of every home. Better yet, within 
every two miles provision is made for a schoolhouse. 
In every town and city, among the noblest buildings, 
are schoolhouses for the children. 13,861 school- 
houses valued at $17,655,992; 28,789 teachers. 
These are pleasant figures to look at. As they are 
considered, there comes to mind a picture of a 
schoolhouse, visited over fifty years ago, where the 
teacher was weaving cloth, his loom festooned with 
pumpkins cut in strips and hung up to dry. A con- 
trast, surely ! x\nd then the academies, the colleges, 
the seminaries. Our own Denmark Academy the first 
of all in territorial days. And of colleges, our Iowa 
College the first in the state. We called it a college 
then ; it was in fact only a school at first, and a small 
one at that ; but we called it a college, not for what 
it was, but was to be. It is pleasant now to look back 
and see how it has grown. Fresh in mind as if yes- 



EVENTIDE 217 

terday is that rainy afternoon when its first Httle build- 
ing at Davenport was dedicated. Not more than a 
dozen present. A prayer and a brief address. To 
think now of the Grinnell Campus, with its buildings 
and furnishings, its teachers, students and graduates — 
this is pleasing. It is a long term of service given to 
it, that of trustee from the first till now, at no trifling 
cost of time and money, and not a little of toil, with 
some anxiety. But to attend even one Commence- 
ment pays for it all. So there is pleasure also in think- 
ing how the churches have multiplied. Instead of that 
little one at Denmark of 32 members in 1838, the 
first of our Congregational churches now extant, west 
of the Mississippi, there are now over 300 of them 
with a membership of over a thousand to one then. 
To think of the vast numbers these churches have 
sent to the West and North, to Kansas, Nebraska, 
the Dakotas and elsewhere, even to the Pacific, show- 
ing how Iowa has been a kind of seed plot for regions 
around and beyond — all this is pleasant. To have 
seen all this growth and development in one's own 
life, the privilege of having been in it and of it, is now^ 
the glow of the sunset hour. To see, as now it is so 
plainly seen, how God's hand has been in it all, makes 
it an hour, not only of joy and thanksgiving for the 
past, but of faith and hope for the future that things 
begun are to go on. Yes, with faith in God's loving 
this world and working for its redemption, life's sun 
is setting with no pessimistic cloud to obsctn-c, but. 



2l8 THE lOlVA BAND 

rather, in the glow of faith and hope. True, the skies 
are not ah clear ; clouds there are, enough of them. 
The millennium is not here ; peace is not yet abroad 
upon the earth. The sins of the nations, yea, of the 
people, are many. The problems thicken of things 
to be done and changes to be made. To a thoughtful 
mind the appearance of impending crises is oppress- 
ive. But then it always has been so. And how the 
crises have been passed; what changes for the better 
have come, even in one short life, warranting faith 
and hope as to the outcome! 

In youth, slavery like a dark pall overshadowed the 
land. Where is it now? How many things come to 
mind, once tolerated and defended, now discarded, set 
aside, things in which some religious principle or 
moral element w^as involved. Why should not the 
good work go on? Why not changes come — change 
after change, raising higher and higher the standard 
of morals, making our Christian civilization more 
truly Christian — Christians everywhere becoming 
more truly such, realizing what in this world it 
means to be a Christian? And what a gap here be- 
tween what is and what ought to be ! What a curtail- 
ment of worldly living; what truer use of talents and 
possessions as God's gifts for doing good in the world 
there must be before we begin to follow closely in the 
footsteps of our blessed Lord ! Yes, begin to do it. 
For how superficial, how shallow does life now seem 
to have been ! Looking at it thus in the reflections 



EVENTIDE 



219 



of this eventide, how it seems as though the great 
thing needed was for Christians somehow to be 
brought to a stand in the rush and whirl of hfc, and 
each take time seriously to inquire, "Am I li\'ing as 
the Lord Jesus would have me? As to the purpose 
of my life, the use of what God has given me of 
talents, wealth and opportunities ; in my home and 
among my neighbors ; in social and civil life ; in every- 
thing, even to the food I eat and the clothes I wear ; 
am I living as Christ would have me, ready to put off 
and to put on, so as to be meet for his use here, and 
to meet him in glory hereafter?" 

This w^ould be a revival indeed ! — just the revival 
which seems to be now needed ; the only revival that 
can save the Church from being w^eighted down by 
shallow conversions, if conversions at all, followed by 
a low standard of Christian living, which she in her 
own practice is herself imposing. Such a revival is 
what the Church needs. The w^orld needs it ; in a 
sense is waiting for it, that there may be felt in it the 
force of the living Christ in the hearts and lives of his 
followers. For, somehow, just as this is, the stand- 
ards of morality are raised, and the forces of evil are 
weakened. 

Here we catch a glimpse of the time when strifes 
and contention shall have ceased ; the mists and the 
clouds shall have cleared away; capital and labor and 
all such problems have found their solution ; social 
questions, their ready answer; this greed for wealth 



220 THE IOWA BAND 

have died out ; prosperity be sanctified, and the whole 
earth smile in the goodness of the Lord. This, when 
Christ is enthroned in the hearts of the children of 
men. 

And if this is ever to be, who shall lead the way? 
Who but they who stand at the altar, the ministers of 
Christ, as the prophets of the Lord? they in bold- 
ness to declare the claims of the Lord Jesus upon 
every soul ; that infidelity to him or wandering from 
him are sins calling for repentance and return ; that 
for any soul refusing to obey him there is no hope of 
life eternal ; that nations too can incur the displeasure 
and bring down the judgments of God who hath said 
of our Lord and Christ, "This is my beloved Son, hear 
him." 

As these reflections come at this hour, when in a 
measure life's work is done and one seems almost 
alone with God, to what conclusions are they leading? 
Is it that from our pulpits the tone of awe and rev- 
erence of a holy God, a fear of his justice and judg- 
ments has been dying out? This not to frighten peo- 
ple, but to be true to God and to show that we see 
his ways and walk in them. Perhaps. 

At any rate, if ever there was a time when the min- 
istry should seriously inquire how. to live and how to 
preach, now is the day. As these thoughts are 
borne in, the impulse comes to break out of this 
meditative mood and utter to the ministry at large 
a word of — , but no! this is too assuming. Still, 



EVENTIDE 221 

liad I the ear of my brother ministers in Iowa, I 
would dare to say, Dear l)rethren, the crown of all 
work, the most potent, the most far-reaching- power 
for good in this world, so far as man is concerned, 
is the preaching of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
each one in the church and among the people where 
in the providence of God he is placed. In his provi- 
dence you are here in Iowa. One cannot go every- 
w^here or do everything. This is your field. What 
better can you desire? Ponder well its history; its 
rapid growth ; its wonderful development. There is 
inspiration in it. If in its workers at the beginning 
of things you see aught to admire or imitate, bear 
it in mind. But live not in the past. Dwell not 
upon it as though the favored times were behind you. 
Think not in yourselves to say, "No frontiers now; 
no more the days of heroic, Christian labor here, but 
the humdrum of commonplace, everyday work." No ! 
no! Keep your eye upon the present. See what is 
nozv going on ; what now is to be done, with your face 
ever to the future. Growth and development ! They 
are just beginning. Look up and around. Two mil- 
lions and more now here, indeed, but millions more 
are soon to be. The vast territories of thirty-one years 
ago are states now swiftly filling up with their millions 
crowding on to far distant Alaska. The whole nation 
is expanding within and without. New problems are 
pressing, problems at home and problems abroad. 
Think of Cuba. Think of the Philippines. Think of 



222 THE IOWA BAND 

the world. No ! no ! You stand at the threshold of 
mighty things, in view of which, now, now are the 
beginnings. This new century is to pass away and . 
others are to come. It opens with no bow of peace 
spanning the heavens ; no breaking of clouds as of 
victories easily won ; but the gatherings of storms and 
conflicts rather. 

The final issue is indeed sure, for God is ; but not 
without faithful, courageous and self-denying labor 
on the part of his people. No! no! again. The true 
frontiers, the heroic days are before, not behind. 
Around every Christian minister there runs a line 
across which are new steps to be taken, new advances 
made to bring him nearer to the pattern of his Lord. 
So around his church. So around the whole Church 
at large in these world-engrossing days. The wide, 
wide gap must be filled, for a type of Christianity to 
cope with the present-day forces of this evil world and 
do the work now opening up before us. 

For the doors are being lifted up. We are talking 
of a King and a kingdom here> on earth as never be- 
fore. We are beginning to realize that it is not simply 
a personal salvation by and by in heaven above 
through a quiet, silent faith in Jesus ; this world en- 
dured, got along with till that shall be, but that this 
Jesus has a kingdom here on earth. This kingdom is 
to be established by the faithful service of those who 
hear his voice. ''As my Father hath sent me even so 
send I you." They that toil even to self-denial and 



BVENTIDli 



223 



suffering here, are the ones to reign with Him above. 
What a Hfe this is compared to one of ease and quiet 
with our heads upon the bosom of the Church and our 
hearts in the world ! 

Dear brethren, in view of the world's need, with the 
gospel remedy so plainly in view, do not the ver\- 
times demand a Christian living and a Christian 
preaching as never before? Who will lead the way? 
Here is the frontier work, here are to be found the 
heroic days. Soon, soon this young century will have 
grown old. Sooner, sooner than this your sun will 
have set. Let it be at the close of a day \vell spent. 
Each faithful in his own field, for faithful w^ork in 
low^a is world-wide. Help to make her more and more 
the gem of states. This cannot fail to bless the nation 
and the nations of earth. 

A single word more, — not as an expression simply 
of personal feeling, but in behalf of my brethren of the 
Band now no more, but w'ho, if living, would doubtless 
join me in saying, "Dear brethren, you have been 
kind to us, and very considerate. We have loved the 
work, have loved you. In your annual gatherings of 
fellowship and counsel some of us have always been 
with you, till but two are left. Ere long it will be said, 
'The last one is gone." May the blessings of God 
rest upon you. Be ye faithful. And now, adieu. 



APPENDIXES 



APPENDIX I 

Minutes at Occasional. Meetings of the Band 

The undersigned of the Class of 1843 in the Theological 
Seminary of Andover assembled in the twentieth year since 
their landing in Iowa at the 24th annual meeting of the Con- 
gregational Association of the State, record with gratitude 
their testimony to the faithfulness and care with which Divine 
Providence and grace have upheld them, their continued and 
confirmed trust in the promises of the great Head of the 
Church, their joy and gladness of heart in the work; and they 
send to their brethren in every place who labor in the cause of 
salvation and- especially those who from generation to genera- 
tion shall succeed them in this field, words of greeting and 
cheer. 
Burlington, June 6, A.D. 1863. 

Harvey Adams, 
Daniel Lane, 
J. J. Hill, 

A. B. ROBBINS. 

E. Adams, 

B. A. Spaulding, 
William Salter. 

Drawn up by William Salter. 



Burlington. June 6. 1873. 
Again the undersigned of the Class of 1843 in the Seminary 
of Andover, Massachusetts, convened at the home of our 
brother and classmate. Rev. Wm. Salter, at the 34th annual 
meet of the Congregational Association of Iowa, our adopted 
state, renew their testimonv to the faithfulness and care of 
the God of their fathers. We render humble thanks for the 
225 



2 26 APPENDIXES 

continuance not only of our own lives but also of the lives of 
those whom God has made of "one flesh" with us. 

From the beginning of our labors in this Western field to 
the present time, we have rejoiced that the great Head of the 
Church directed our footsteps thither, and we here record our 
earnest conviction that humility, gratitude, love and faith in 
God should be the controlling feelings of our hearts towards 
Him who thus far has led us on. By his grace we are what 
we are. By his grace we have accomplished what little we 
have done. In the same grace we will trust unto the end. 

Daniel Lane, aged 60, 
Ephraim Adams, aged 55, 
Alden B. Robbins, aged 56, 
William Salter, aged 51, 
Harvey Adams, aged 64. 
Drawn up by Daniel Lane. 



Burlington, Iowa, June 2, 1876. 
Nearly thirty-three years ago the undersigned members of 
the class of 1843 at Andover landed at this place, inquiring for 
the most needy fields of missionary labor in Iowa territory. 
We thank God for this third of a century of opportunity to 
bear some humble part in planting churches of Christ in this 
great state and other states, and in laying foundations of educa- 
tional institutions. Though a few wrinkles upon the brow and 
silver locks remind us that bone and muscle will wear out, we 
arc not weary in well doing. Our hearts were never more 
cheerful, our love for the work stronger, or our faith in the 
triumph of the gospel over this fair Western land of our 
adoption more firm. We meet here on the 35th annual gath- 
ering of the churches of Iowa to witness with joy what the 
Lord has done for Iowa. Probably we shall not all of us 
meet again in the flesh. But the shining river is not far ahead, 
where we shall soon meet and have ample time to recount our 
life experiences and work. 

E. B. Turner, age 6z. 
E. Adams, age 58, 
Harvey Adams, age 67, 
A. B. Robbins, age 59, 
W. Salter, age 54. 



Drawn up by E. B. Turner. 



APPENDIXES 227 

Mnscaline. Iowa, May 19, 1893. 
Members of the Class of 1843. Andover Theological Semi- 
nary, who came in that year to the territory of Iowa to prose- 
cute the work of the Lord Jesus and who have continued 
therein to the present time, assembled at the 54th annual 
meeting of the Congregational Association of Iowa in the 
City of ]\Iuscatine, the field of labor in wdiich one of our num- 
ber has fulfilled his ministry of continuous service from the 
beginning, and now gathered together in the hospitable home 
of ]\Irs. Dr. P. B. Johnson, of this city, record their testimony 
to the loving-kindness of the Lord in all the years of their 
labor and their unfaltering faith- in the gospel of our Saviour 
w hich they have humbly endeavored to preach in simplicity 
and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace 
of God. They assure their successors in the work of the 
fidelity of the great Head of the Church to the pronnse, "Lo 
I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." And 
they commend that promise to the firm, implicit confidence of 
those who are called to teach men to observe and lo do all 
things whatsoever that Jesus commands. 

Harvey Adams, 
a. b. robeins, 
E. Adams, 
Wm. Salter. 
Drawn up by William Salter. 



Waterloo, low.a^ Sept. 16, 1895. 
The undersigned members of the Iowa Band deem the 
present date a fitting occasion to note some of the special deal- 
ings of our heavenly Father with us, and to express our 
acknowledgments of his continued goodness. While all of 
us who remain h*ave been allowed to pass our three score and 
ten, and some by many years, yet death has taken loved ones 
from our households. The wives of three of the Band have 
left for their heavenly home. These were Mrs. Wm. Salter, 
Mrs. Harvey Adams, and Mrs. A. B. Robbins. They were 
women who had made happy homes, who 'had also served the 
churches and their generation well. While by their departure 
their surviving partners and parishes are made to feel the 
weight of a great sorrow, they yet feel that the departed are 
enjoying the reward of their earthlv service. Also one of the 
Band has fallen asleep — the Rev. E. B. Turner. His labors 
were more largely in Illinois and Missouri. Th-ere are now 



228 APPENDIXES 



surviving of the Band four in Iowa, and one in Massachusetts. 
Of the wives still living, there are Mrs. D. Lane, Mrs. E. B. 
Turner, Mrs. B. A. Spaulding, and Mrs. E. Adams. Mrs. 
Adams is the only surviving wife in Iowa and she and her 
husband are the only couple of the Band who have lived to 
celebrate their golden wedding. That occurs on the day of this 
date. The two of us present, who have been associated with 
them during these fifty years, would not only express to them 
but put into this memorandum warm and hearty congratula- 
tions with them that have lived to see this joyful and eventful 
occasion. God has been kind to them. May the kindness 
long continue ! 

There is need only to add that while those of us whose 
wives have gone before, still deeply and constantly mourn 
their loss, we would here record our fuller sense of the rich- 
ness, the sufiiciency and surety of divine consolation for every 
time of need. 

Harvey Adams, 
Ephraim Adams. 
William Salter. 
Drawn up by Harvey Adams. 



Waterloo, May i6, 1897. 

The members of the Iowa Band who to-day in the home of 
one of them sign thns paper, make record as follows : 

Since we met in Burlington one year ago. three of our num- 
ber have passed over to the presence of our Saviour and 
Lord: Brother H. Adams in New Hampton, A. B. Robbins 
in Muscatine, and ]\Irs. E. B. Turner in Owego, New York. 
Beside ourselves there only remain Brother E. Alden of 
Marsbfield, Massachusetts, Mrs. D. Lane, of Freeport, Maine, 
and Mrs. B. A. Spaulding of Ottumwa. It is now fifty-four 
years since our work in Iowa began and we wish still to record 
the goodness of God in bringing us at an auspicious time to a 
good field and that his blessing has rested upon it. Drawing 
near to the sunset of our day, it is a joy to think of even the 
little part we may have had in what God through his servants 
has done in Iowa. It is the Lord's doing and marvelous in 
our eyes. It is with fond afifection we cherish the memories 
of our brothers and sisters who have gone before to the bless- 
edness, we trust, of those who die in the Lord, and we, though 
only the remnant of families and of the Band, gratefully 
acknowledge that not one thing hath failed of all which the 



APPENDIXES 



Lord our God hath promised. And our hope is that when our 
summons comes, as soon it must, we, as behevers in Jesus, 
may be gathered with them for yet further service and joy on 
the other shore. 

William Salter, 
Ephraim Adams, 
Mrs. Ephraim Adams. 
Drawn up by Ephraim Adams. 



Atlantic, Cass County, Iowa, May 21. A.D. 1899. 

In attendance at the 6oth- annual meeting of the Congrega- 
tional Association of the state, and entertained at the hospi- 
table home of D. Findlay, M. D., the surviving members of the 
Iowa Band of 1843 record their devout and grateful acknowl- 
edgment to the divine mercy and grace which for hfty-jix 
years have sustained them in the work of the Christian minis- 
try in Iowa. They see with joy and gladness that in every 
portion of the commonwealth, churches and ministers which 
hold the ancient faith and order of the gospel have been mul- 
tiplied. With admiring satisfaction they behold the zeal and 
devotion and the enlightened spirit of their younger brethren 
in the ministry and they give to those brethren their cordial 
salutation and blessing in the Lord Jesus. Recalling with hal- 
lowed and tender affection the members of the Band who were 
formerly with us, with whom we have labored and prayed to- 
gether for the salvation of Iowa, whose spirits now rest in 
God, they rejoice in the blest tie which, as it was in the be- 
ginning, and as it has been for more than a half century, still 
binds our hearts in Christian love, and to-day makes the fel- 
lowship of our kindred minds like that above. 

Ephraim Adams, age 81. 
William Salter, age 77. 

Drawn up by William Salter. 

Burlington, Iowa, May 24, 1901. 
The last surviving members of those who came to the Ter- 
ritory of Iowa from the Theological Institution of Andover, 
Massachusetts, in the year 1843, assembled in the city of Bur- 
lington at the sixty-second annual meeting of the Congrega- 
tional Association of the state, record their devout thanks- 
giving to th-e great Head of the Church for the continued care 
of divine Providence over them to the fifty-eighth year of 
th'^ir ministry in low^, their grateful recollections of the goocj- 



230 APPENDIXES 

ness of God in giving to them, and to their brethren who have 
rested from their labors, a humble part in planting Christian 
civilization in this beloved Commonwealth, and their fervent 
prayers that the fruits of righteousness may in every part of 
the state be sown in peace of them that make peace in all the 
future years of its history. 

Ephraim Adams, age 83, 
Mrs. Ephraim Adams, age 80, 
William Salter, age 79. 
Drawn up by William Salter. 



APPENDIX II 

Boston, May 28, 1844. 

A meeting of gentlemen was held at the Home Mission 
Rooms at the request of the Rev'd Asa Turner of the Ter- 
ritory of Iowa. 

The following gentlemen were present : — 
Rev'd Calvin E. Stowe, Rev'd I. A. Allro, 

Rev'd George E. Pierce, Rev'd William Tvler, 

Rev'd Edward Beecher, Rev'd E. N. Kirk, 

Rev'd R. S. Storrs, Rev'd Milton Badger, 

Rev'd Theron Baldwin, Mr. D. Noyes, 

Rev'd John M. Ellis, Mr. I. A. Palmer. 

Rev'd Dr. Storrs was called to the chair, and E. Beecher 
was appointed secretary. 

A record was read by the Rev'd Mr. Turner of the proceed- 
ings of the Iowa College Association — proposing a plan for 
the founding and endowment of a college by the purchase of 
a tract of land. Statements were so made by Mr. Turner ex- 
planatory of their views. 

Dr. Storrs being obliged to retire, D. Noyes was called to 
the chair in his place. 

Questions were then proposed to elicit as fully as possible 
the facts of the case, and the whole subject was carefully dis- 
cussed. 

After this discussion, a committee was appointed consisting 
of D. Noyes, Geo. E. Pierce, E. Beecher, and Theron BaM- 
win, to whom the three following questions were referred : 

1. Is it expedient at this time to begin an effort for the es- 
tablishment of a college in Iowa? 

2. Is the plan proposed by Mr. Turner best adapted to se- 
cure the end in view? 

3. If not, what plan is to be preferred to it? 

Voted to adjourn to to-morrow at 3 P. M. at this place. 



Boston, May 29, 1844. 
According to adjournment, the meeting was held at the 
Home Mission Rooms. 
The gentlemen of the committee made individual reports on 

^31 



232 



APPENDIXES 



the questions assigned to them ; and there being an entire con- 
currence of views, the separate reports were assigned to E. 
Beecher to be united in one as the opinion of this meeting — 
which was done as fohows : — 

1. Is it expedient at this time to begin an effort for the es- 
tablishment of a college in Iowa? 

It is expedient to begin to put things in train for the foun- 
dation of a college in Iowa, in order to secure united counsels, 
and to be in a condition to take advantage of all available 
means for securing the end. 

2. Is the plan proposed best adapted to gain the end in 
view ? 

The plan of endeavoring to endow a college by borrowing 
money to purchase a township of land, confiding in its increase 
of value in five years, to repay the principal, involves the fol- 
lowing serious disadvantages : — 

(i) The risking the success of the whole enterprise on the 
chances of making a wise purchase, sure to increase in value. 

(2) The difficulty of securing the requisite quantity of 
land, just where the great interests of collegiate education for 
ages to come would demand a college and the irreparable in- 
jury to the enterprise of failing to do this. 

(3) The risking of the success of the enterprise on the 
financial skill of an association of benevolent men, whose main 
ends are intellectual and moral and not financial. 

(4) The injury to which the ministry of Iowa are exposed 
if they undertake to carry through so vast a system of specu- 
lation by the absorption of mind in secular and commercial 
and agricultural interests and plans, which it will produce. 

(5) The obstacles which such a plan would present to the 
cultivation of a benevolent and self-denying spirit in the 
churches. If the land was secured it would afford a good ex- 
cuse for not giving, and thus the primary steps would take 
the college out of the bosom of the churches and throw it 
into the cold regions of speculation. 

(6) The character and reputation of the ministry of Iowa 
would be exposed to great abuse. For in the transaction of 
so much business it would be strange if no occasions of hos- 
tility and odium should arise, and if any imprudent or in- 
defensible steps are taken by only one or two of their agents, 
still the odium would extend to all more or less. 

(7) If the final results of the speculation should be unfor- 
timate it would be in the highest degree disastrous. 

(8) Should there be a failure there would be less sympathy 
to fall back upon, 



APPENDIXES 233 

(9) There is a strong prejudice at the East against all 
plans of this sort, from the failure of other plans based on the 
idea of securing endowments b}^ the rise of land — and even if 
this plan were entirely unexceptionable, it would be impossible 
to free it from the opposing influence of that prejudice. 

In view of these considerations we cannot recommend the 
plan as adopted to gain the end in view. 
3. What plan is to be preferred to it? 

The wisest plan would be to obtain a good location for the 
college in the best place ; taking an enlarged view of the great 
interests of collegiate education in all ages. 

To obtain this location if possible by donation, and not to 
be anxious to secure more land at the college than is sufficient 
for college purposes — say forty acres. 

At the same time to receive by way of donation as much 
land as will be given either near the college or elsewhere. 

To avoid the contraction of debts as a first principle. 

To form an accumulating fund, and to endeavor to train 
every church to add something to it every year, that the col- 
lege may be from the outset rooted in their affections and 
grow with their growth, and strengthen with their strength. 
Too much importance cannot be attached to this simple 
measure. Do not despise the day of small things — and trust 
in God to open and unite all hearts. 

Let all donations be outright, and no peculiar privileges be 
offered to donors for future ages, as a compensation for dona- 
tions. 

Secure if possible the immediate payments of all donations. 

Regard an elevated reputation, and the affections and con- 
fidence of the community as your best endowment and as lead- 
ing under God to the securing of all the aid that you need. 

As early as may be safely done, begin instruction on a 
moderate scale, and enlarge your plans with your means. 

Aid from the East cannot be obtained as it once was. The 
newly formed society is rapidly gaining the confidence of the 
Eastern churches, and through it aid may be obtained when 
the plan and the system of instruction shall be so matured 
that they can secure the confidence of the Eastern mind. 

Meantime, patience, perseverance, enlarged views and hope 
in God are essential to begin and to execute such a plan. 

This is the substance of the particular reports made by the 
individuals of the committee united as one. by order of the 
meeting. 

Attest. 

E. Bkkchf.k, Secretary. 



,} ..-^ o ^^ 




I O WA 



ADDENDA 



NOTES 

Note i, page 12. Of that prayer-meeting it can be said that 
it has never wholly died out. The members of the Band, of 
course, held it in mind. Some of their brethren, especially in 
the earlier days, joined in this remembrance of each other. It 
is but a few years since at a General Association by a rising 
vote they pledged an observance of Tuesday night. It is not 
to be supposed in a changing ministry that all would do this, 
but it can with safety be said that, up to this time, there al- 
ways have been those, sometimes more, sometimes less, who 
have remembered it. Often has it been a comfort to those in 
affliction to know that at a specified time their names were 
mentioned at the throne of grace. And what a bond of broth- 
erhood it would be among the ministers of any state to have a 
concert of prayer for one another ! 

Note 2, p. 22. Two incidents during the stay at IMilwaukee 
are fresh in mind. One, a Monday morning call upon the pas- 
tor of our church there, a modest, retiring young man. after- 
wards known as Dr. Chapin, the first and for so long a time 
president of Beloit College. The second, an interview with 
Rev. Stephen Peet, at that time Missionary Agent of Wiscon- 
sin, who, true to his work in hand, laborecf somewhat urgently 
to produce the conviction that in the Territory of Wisconsin 
were the fields of greatest need and promise, while Iowa Ter- 
ritory was so far west and so crude as to make it almost pre- 
posterous for so many to think of going there. 

Note 3, p. 26. The hospitalities of that entrance to Iowa 
were never forgotten. Then were acquaintances formed and 
friendships begun that grew and strengthened in after years. 
There was at that time in Burlington a veritable mother in 
Israel Mrs. James G. Edwards, and her generous-hearted hus- 
band, the founder, editor and proprietor of the Burlington 
235 



236 ADDENDA 



Hawkeye, whose western experience enabled them to see what 
these young men whom they took to their home had before 
them, as they conld not. Everything said and done seemed to 
be out of the motherly heart full of joy, yet serious and earnest, 
for God's blessing on the work in hand. The hymn for morn- 
ing worship was well chosen : 

Kindred in Christ, for his dear sake, 
A hearty welcome here receive. 
May we together now partake 
The joys which only He can give. 

Note 4, p. 31. As a matter of fact, there has never been a 
time when all have been together since leaving the seminary. 
Yet the occasions in Iowa where a number have met have by 
no means been infrequent. Especially has this been the case 
at annual meetings of the General Association. Not always, 
but frequently, on such occasions have they recorded their tes- 
timony as to themselves, their fields of labor, etc., in reading 
which it can be seen how the Band has melted away till but a 
remnant is left. 

Note 5, p. 2>7- The position of the Band of Congregational- 
ists thus taken by the side of those who welcomed them here, 
Mhose united work made Iowa an object lesson for the ideals 
of such spirits as Ellis and Sturtevant and Post, of Illinois, of 
Hobart, of ]\Iichigan, was the coming of a new chapter into 
our denominational history in the West and through the larrd, 
a chapter but little appreciated in these days. But few under- 
stand the situation at that time or realize the importance of 
those things that turned the scale. If any one is interested to 
know these things, he can do no better than turn to the Recol- 
lections of a Nonagenarian, by the late Dr. Holbrook who was 
an actor therein. 

Note 6, p. 38. It is pleasing to read, in a letter of Father 
Turner to Rev. J. A. Reed, more than twenty years after the 
coming of the Band, such words as these : "I have never been 
disappointed in them. I have reason for gratitude to them and 
to God that they have always treated me with so much kind- 
ness and confidence, and that the experience of twenty-one 
years has led me to esteem them so highly in love for their 
works' sake." Brother Reed used to say of the members of 



ADDENDA 237 

the Band -and those before them, "that like two drops of 
water flowing together they became one." 

Note 7, p. 39. The map on page 234 will show not only the 
places named in this chapter, but also suggest the state of 
things at the time, away to the west, even to the Pacific Indian 
Territory. The journey described was made by the author in 
the summer of 1844. In the first edition he disguised himself 
and brethren by the use of initials, etc., but in this edition the 
real names are given. 

Note 8, p. 51. The author shrinks from making frequent 
allusions to his own experience, but he may be allowed, per- 
haps, to state what in particular led him to Denmark at this 
time. It was a question awaiting decision, to him of no little 
weight. There had come an invitation to succeed Brother 
Hitchcock in his labors just closed at Davenport. A call from 
a church of eighteen members and fairly organized ; a church 
building just being completed, that seemed spacious (28x38) ; 
a river location in scenery of surpassing beauty — a call to what 
seemed a field of greater usefulness — these were" attractions ; 
but not to be yielded to without counsel and advice of Father 
Turner, then the Home Missionary Agent for a portion of his 
time. So an interview was sought. In his study the situation 
was stated — the pros and cons gone over ; then a walk together 
along the alley leading from his residence to a farm gate shut- 
ting it in from the highway, the matter still under discussion, 
and there continued for some moments, one upon one side of 
the gate, and the other upon the other, till a decision was ar- 
rived at in tbis wise : 

"Why," said he, as a reason for change, "you can fit students 
in Latin and Greek for college, can't you, if necessary?" 

"Why, yes, of course," was the reply. 

"Well, then," said he, "go to Davenport ; prepare the way 
for the college." 

So came an eleven years' pastorate there, with much outside 
work for what will appear in a chapter yet to come. 

Note 9, p. 58. The family alluded to was that of Charles 
Atkinson, Esq., of Moline, Illinois, elder brother of Rev. Geo. 
Atkinson of Oregon fame. The Father in the ministry was 
Father Turner; the youthful minister, the writer. Fresh in 
mind are the very attitude, the earnestness of tone and look 
when he made the prophecy, just as after reading the Scrip- 



238 ADDENDA 

tures and a season of prayer he was taking his leave. In that 
region now there are over one hundred thousand inhabitants 
and the number is still increasing. 

Note 10. p. 95. It was incumbent upon the writer to carry 
this paper to the East for publication. It was presented first to 
Secretary Badger at New York, with but little doubt that he 
would favor the plan, but he began at once very politely to 
discourage it. As the reasons for it were urged. "Well," he 
said, "you are going to Boston, carry it to Dr. Clark, the Mas- 
sachusetts Secretary, and see what he says." The paper pre- 
sented to him met with the same discouragement. As the rea- 
sons were being rehearsed with th'C urgency of a last chance, 
"Well," said he, "it is of no use ; Dr. Badger has written to 
me about it and we are agreed. The churches won't stand it." 
1 he effort was fruitless unless, as a result of it, there appeared 
in the Home Missionary, soon after, beautiful pictures of log- 
cabin churches and cheap frame churches, with calculations 
made showing with how little money they could be built. 

Note ii, p. 104. And further still. So far as known, the 
first conception of a college in Iowa was in the mind of Reu- 
ben Gaylord while yet a student in Yale, and before Iowa had 
fairly begun to be, and is found in a letter of his written in 
1838, to the secretaries of the A. H. M. S., which tells of an 
enterprise in which he and some others are interested in re- 
spect to education and a college in the Iowa District, the 
Black Hawk Purchase, asking what they can do to help in the 
matter. That letter, in his own handwriting, through the cour- 
tesy of the secretaries, is now in the Iowa alcove of the Col- 
lege Library. Coming himself to Iowa soon after, to join 
Turner and Reed, also from Yale, we are not surprised to 
find in the minutes of their early Association mention made of 
committees, and reports in reference to a college. As to the 
Band, one evening previous to their coming, they were by 
special invitation in the home of that good man, Samuel Far- 
rar, the treasurer of Andover Seminary. He planned the 
opportunity, and faithfully did he improve it, of urging that 
a part of their missionary work in Iowa should be the early 
founding of a college, giving to each a copy of the charter and 
constitution of Phillips Academy, out of which came the Sem- 
inary. One of the copies is also now in the college archives. 
That first meeting in Denmark was where the two sets of in- 
fluence came together. 



ADDENDA 



239 



Note 12, p. 109. Even to this day th-e phrase "Our College" 
has by no means died out. True, in the course of time, two 
others of our order have appeared. First, Tabor College, in 
the extreme southwestern corner of the state — an offshoot of 
Oberlin — and doing good work in Western Iowa and parts ad- 
jacent of Nebraska and Missouri. Next, of later date, to the 
far east in Muscatine County, came Wilton College, doing a 
like good work for our German youths, many having the minis- 
try in view', in behalf of their countrymen. To these we all bid 
a hearty Godspeed. Still, remembering how early it was 
started ; how it drew to itself the sympathy and support of the 
early churches as they began to multiply; how it has growm 
with their growth, standing somewhat central among them ; 
mindful, too, of the fact that Avhen aided by the College So- 
ciety the understanding was that the united forces should be 
concentrated upon the one college, and not divided among 
many; it seems to the majority of the churches now but natu- 
ral and reasonable to speak of Iowa College as "Our College," 
handed down as an inheritance from the past, as a sacred trust 
to be acknowledged and cared for. There is something also 
of the same feeling toward the old Denmark Academy, which 
was started before the College, and for a while was as much of 
a college as the College itself. 

Note 13, p. hi. It may be of interest to know how this 
came about. While the early steps were being taken, not en- 
tirely free from fear lest they might prove premature, the en- 
couraging fact became known (and what helped to turn the 
scale) that some one had deposited money with the Home 
Missionary treasurer at New York, for the benefit of some edu- 
cational institution in a new Western state, said money to be 
paid at his order. By inquiries made the name and residence 
of that person was found. A letter sent to Mr. Carter through 
Dr. Badger (who heartily endorsed it), setting forth purpose 
and plans for a college in Iowa, brought back a response of 
interest expressed and a check enclosed of one hundred dollars, 
with some intimations of more. The_ correspondence _ which 
naturally ensued resulted in his donation, which, considering 
the time and circumstances, was one of the largest the College 
has ever received. In his letters (some of which, by the wav. 
are in that alcove before alluded to) he frequently^ speaks of 
"Our Infant College," showing its place of adoption in his 
heart, over which he was watching with a sort of parental care. 



240- ADDENDA 



Note 14, p. iii. Those professors were: Rev. Erastus Rip- 
ley Carter, Professor of Ancient Languages ; Rev. H. L. Bul- 
len. Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy; D. S. 
Sheldon, M.A., Professor of Chemistry and Natural Science ; 
Rev. D. Lane, M.A., Professor of Mental and Moral Philoso- 
phy. 

Note 15, p. 151. The initials in this fragment cannot all be 
given. Some of them have passed from the memory of its 
writer even. Suffice it to say that Bro. T., stands for 
Brother Nutting, then pastor of our once flourishing church 
at Bradford, Chickasaw County; C, is for Chapin where the 
esteemed Brother Avery was Jaboring; F., for Franklin County. 
The River S.. was probably a swollen tributary of the Cedar. 

Note 16. p. 213. During Brother Spaulding's ministry at 
Ottumwa, one of his parishioners presented him with a silver- 
headed ebony cane. In his last sickness he gave it to Brother 
Lane, expressing the wish that after him it might go to the 
next oldest of the Band that should be living, and so on to the 
end. The succession of the cane has been as follows : 

March 31, 1867 from Spaulding to Lane. 

April 3, 1890 from Lane to H. Adams. 

September 22, 1896 from H. Adams to A. B. Robbins. 

December 23, 1896 from Robbins to E. Adams. 

Note 17, p. 213. This was June 12, 1893, by the falling of a 
tree across the carriage in which she and her husband with 
two lady friends were riding in the Burlington cemetery. She 
was killed instantly. Her husband, regarded at first as fatally 
injured, recovered. The two lady friends escaped unhurt. 



:8 I 6 1903 



I 






